Cowboy Billionaire’s Second Chance
Honey Creek Ranch Book One
Anna Rose Hill
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
About the Author
Copyright © 2020 by Anna Rose Hill
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter 1
Travis reined in his anxiety and worry as he watched his younger brother guide the horse on another turn.
“Just ask her to move forward, Colton,” he hollered from atop the four rail fence that lined the round pen. “Focus on her now. We don’t want to upset her enough that she’ll go to bucking.”
“If she does, I’ll ride her out.”
Clicking his tongue, Travis stifled the order that his brother listen to him for once. He realized at the ripe old age of twenty-five, Colton thought he knew everything.
“That’s the point I’m trying to make, dude,” Travis went on as Colton nudged the three year old filly into a careful walk. “I need you too much to have you hospitalized in traction.”
Colton laughed under his breath, and Travis watched the filly flick her ears back at the sound. “I just bend,” Colton replied easily. “Not break.”
“Okay, that’s good, that’s good, bro. Get her to give to the bit, just a little.”
“I do know how to break a horse to saddle, big brother,” Colton said, taking a quick look at Travis on the fence from under his cowboy hat.
“You’re used to the old ways, brother mine,” Travis reminded him. “I don’t want to simply ride their bucks out, and make them work by force.”
“I know. Give a horse a positive experience.”
“Think she’ll react positively if you push her into a trot?”
Colton grinned. “How ‘bout we find out.”
Giving the filly more rein, Colton touched her gently with his spurs. The little bay threw her head up in surprise, then trotted obediently forward. Travis watched her closely, searching for signs she would blow up and go to pitching. This happened to be her fifth time ridden under saddle, and thus far, he observed that she learned quickly, and had a pleasing disposition.
After three turns around the round pen, Colton turned her in a circle and trotted her in the opposite direction. “I like her,” Colton said, still focusing on the filly. “Smooth as glass.”
“Now I’d stop her and let her think about it,” Travis suggested, feeling absurdly pleased with his brother.
Travis was the oldest of the six Hamilton brothers, but it seemed strange to him that he and Colton, the youngest, looked the most alike. Colton and he both had light brown hair, but despite their age difference, with their blue eyes and their tall, broad shouldered builds, they could be considered twins.
“Let’s up the ante,” Colton commented, and touched her with the spurs again.
Travis winced. Too hard, too hard. Sure enough, a shudder went through the bay. At the same moment her head dropped between her knees, her rear quarters tried to touch the sky. Squealing like a rodeo bronc, she jumped and bucked, her shiny mahogany body glinting in the sunlight.
Caught by surprise, Colton lost his balance by the third pitch, and sailed over her head to land on the hard packed dirt with a solid thud. Travis swore under his breath, instantly fearing the filly would land on him with all four hooves. By some miracle, she bounded over and not on him, still bucking toward the far side of the pen.
Travis ran to Colton, and knelt beside him. “Are you all right?”
Coughing, winded, covered in dust, Colton muttered, “Yeah,” and tried to sit up.
“No, lay still for a second,” Travis urged him. “Let’s make sure she didn’t mess you up.”
Resting his head on the ground, Colton coughed. “She caught me off guard.”
Travis laughed while extending his hand to his brother. “I’ll say she did. Now where would I be if she busted your fool neck?”
“Can it, big brother.” Colton carefully sat up. “I ain’t hurt. ‘Cept my pride.”
“Your pride can take it. It’s your bones I worry about.”
Travis helped him to his feet, and glanced over to where the filly stood quietly, watching them with suspicion. While Colton collected himself and used his hat to brush the dust from his clothes, Travis ambled over to the bay. She tried to shy away, but Travis blocked her by stepping in front of her shoulder.
Giving up, she permitted him to pick up the reins, and lead her back to Colton. “All righty then,” Travis said dryly. “Round two. Now don’t hit her with the spurs.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Colton swiftly remounted her, and Travis half expected her to blow again. But when Colton’s hand and murmured words meant to soothe worked their charms, the bay stood quiet. Travis returned to his perch on the fence, and caught sight of Brady’s truck kicking up dust from the driveway that led from the barn, the corrals, the big roping arena to the ranch houses.
“What’s Brady doing here?” he asked.
“I reckon we’ll find out.”
Brady, a year younger than Travis, stopped the truck a reasonable distance from the round pen, and walked toward Travis. He had inherited their father’s thick dark brown hair, and solid stature, but received their mother’s easy nature. He folded his arms on the rail beside Travis.
“How’s it going?”
“Colton got thrown,” Travis said, watching Colton start over again with the filly.
“Hardy, har har,” Colton snapped, nudging the filly into another smooth trot.
“That boy likes his spurs,” Brady said on an exaggerated sigh. “Maybe he also likes eating dirt.”
As though to show off, Colton lightly spurred the filly, and this time she rolled easily into a lope.
“Now who’s laughing?” Colton challenged, riding the filly along the rails of the pen.
“Was I laughing?” Brady asked with wide-eyed innocence.
Then he leaned toward Travis. “Don’t tell him, but he does have the gift with horses.”
Travis watched both filly and brother closely again, then nodded. “He won’t hear it from me.” Lifting his voice, he called, “Now give her a break, son.”
Colton eased the filly down to a walk, and then to a stop. He rubbed her neck, grinning. The filly’s nostrils flared as she breathed hard under the unfamiliar exertion, but she stood relaxed and quiet. “She’s a smart lil’ thing.”
Travis turned to look down at Brady. “I thought you had to take Riley to the doc.”
“I did,” Brady replied. “I just got back.” Jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the truck, he added, “She’s in there asleep.”
“What kind of papa are you?” Travis asked with a smile. “Leave a five year old kid in a truck.”
“Relax, the engine is running with the A/C,” Brady retorted. “And I’m right here.”
Travis turned his attention back to C
olton and the filly. “You gonna go again?”
“Yep.”
Colton turned her around, and then repeated the walk, trot, lope session. Brady touched Travis’s arm, and handed him a sealed letter. “Some lawyer in Odessa wrote you a letter.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you’re the head honcho around here.”
“Mom and Dad left the ranch to all of us,” Travis replied absently, frowning at the letterhead. “We three run it together since Wyatt wants his playboy life in New York.”
“Hey, what can you expect?” Brady asked. “We all inherited a billion bucks last year. I still can’t believe it. A billion dollars.”
“And the ranch. But I’d trade it all to have Mom and Dad back.”
“Same here,” Brady agreed.
Colton rode the filly toward them, and stopped. “What are y’all jawing about?”
“This here letter,” Brady replied. “If the boss will finally open it.”
Travis ripped open the envelope, and pulled the folded letter out to read. As he read it, his anger grew, and in his now fouled temper, handed it to Brady. “I can’t believe it,” he snapped.
“What?” Colton asked.
“There’s been a complaint,” Travis growled. “About how we planted fence on Old Man Parnell’s land.”
“Uh, didn’t we have that land surveyed?” Colton asked as Brady passed the paper up to him.
“Yeah, we did,” Travis retorted. “This is a nuisance suit.”
“I bet old Parnell thinks it’s easy cash,” Brady suggested. “Honey Creek is a small town, and when a resident inherits a billion bucks, that causes a load of envy. I bet he did it just because we’re richer than he is.”
Colton handed the letter back to Travis. “I think this could become a real problem. But I hope not.”
Travis shoved the letter back into its envelope, and the whole thing into his pocket. “Yeah, probably so. But I have no time to be hunting up some fool lawyer to represent us.”
“We’ll win, right?” Colton asked, tipping his hat back on his head. “With the survey as proof, and all.”
“Unless old Parnell has some ace up his sleeve,” Travis answered, bothered by the whole thing.
“Our folks in their graves less than a year,” Brady added, turning his head to check on the still running truck. “But that old man and Pop never did get along. Hey, he never even got along with Granddad.”
“Old coot,” Travis muttered. “Now where are we going to get a lawyer? Honey Creek isn’t exactly Odessa.”
“I expect we’ll have to take a run up to Odessa ourselves,” Colton suggested. “Hire our own fancy two-gun lawyer.”
Travis shook his head, growing annoyed again.
Honey Creek was a small town in the middle of Big Bend Country in West Texas. Odessa was over one hundred fifty miles to the north. “Like we have all the time in the world, boys. We have a six thousand acre ranch to run, over five thousand head of cattle to manage, horses to break, bulls to sell, and the barn is falling apart.”
Brady grinned. “Cake and pie, big brother.”
Feeling the world on his shoulders, Travis gazed at the distant houses, the big ranch house he now shared with Colton, and the smaller one where Brady and his family lived. Well, now that Travis’ sister-in-law Sheila was gone to her grave, Brady lived alone with his daughter, Riley.
“Too bad Wyatt and Jared want nothing to do with the ranch,” he murmured. “It’s theirs, too.”
“At least Jared comes back to visit,” Brady replied. “Working on a Ph.D. is no picnic.”
“And Landon will be back after rodeo season is over,” Colton chimed in.
Travis glowered. “He’ll get himself busted up riding those bucking bulls. It’s not like he needs the money to live on.”
Brady laughed, and clapped him on the back. “He’s young, bro. Let him play with his bulls. And quit being so overprotective.”
“Yeah, Ma,” Colton added sourly.
“I just don’t have time to take all day to go to Odessa for a lawyer,” Travis said, squinting toward the horizon to the north. “But I reckon I’ll have to.”
“I know it’s been extra-hard on you since Mama and Daddy, well, since the accident, Travis. Everything got thrown into your lap,” Brady added. “You’ve taken on so much.”
“Everything got thrown into all our laps,” Travis responded, even though Brady was right.
Travis had gotten the lion's share of extra work that was necessary after their parents' deaths. It wasn't only the physical aspects of their work on the ranch, but also the paperwork, which Travis hated. They'd been able to hire another skilled ranch hand to take their father's spot on the range, and Colton handled most of the books, but Travis was the oldest brother. The others looked up to him to be in charge of things.
Well, Brady and Colton did anyway. The other three Hamilton brothers were pursuing their dreams in far-flung places – even if Wyatt’s dream was simply to live high off the hog in New York.
He understood each of his brothers well. He knew they couldn’t all live the life of ranchers. But Travis was dedicated, wholeheartedly, to honoring his parents’ wishes for Honey Creek Ranch. His great-grandfather had bought the original place nearly a century earlier, having come up to Honey Creek from Crystal City, after he got married. Travis’s grandparents had spent their lives making the Honey Creek Ranch a living, working ranch. Travis intended to keep it that way.
Travis looked out over the land to where it extended up into the mountains in the distance as his brothers discussed the letter. Maybe the expanse before him would calm his nerves. It seemed to him that since his parents died, he'd been behind in everything. No matter how much hard work he did, there was always so much more to do the next day.
It wasn't that he shied from hard work. In fact, he thrived on it. But the past year had been trying, to say the least. In what seemed like a bad dream, Travis and his brothers were left adult orphans when their parents were killed in a car wreck.
After the accident, the Hamilton boys were billionaires, which was shocking to all of them. While they'd always known they would, one day, inherit a family business, they'd had no idea that their parents had so much money. Their parents had been frugal, and they’d also been extremely good at managing the business. With some wise investing, unbeknownst to their sons, they’d turned their family farm into a secret fortune.
The boys hadn't been raised wealthy. Since becoming so, a lot of things in their lives had changed. Not all of them for the better. Sleepless nights and Pepto Bismol were new to Travis's daily existence.
Travis needed a break.
Brady suddenly snapped his fingers. “Wait a sec,” he said, his tone urgent. “We have a town lawyer.”
“We do?”
“Yeah,” Brady replied, turning his grin from Travis to Colton and back. “Your old sweetheart. Addie Baker.”
Travis thought his heart would stop beating right then and there. Addie. Addie Baker. Addison. He lowered his face, gritting his teeth, unable to stop the pain, the grief, from swelling in his chest. She had been the love of his life. But she had left Honey Creek for good all those years ago, without a backward glance. She had shattered his soul when she had left for college.
“Travis?”
Brady’s voice seemed to come from far away. “Earth to Trav. You in there, buddy?”
“Hey, Brady.” Colton’s voice held a note of worry. “Travis ain’t in his right mind when it comes to that girl.”
“What do you mean?” Brady squinted at him. “You were just a kid when she went away.”
“Yeah, but I remember.”
So do I. Travis lifted his face, and wiped the sweat from his skin with his sleeve. “Uh, you should put her up now, Colton,” he murmured, glancing at the horse. “She did good.”
“Trav, buddy, you okay?”
Brady stared at him, his brown eyes anxious. “I’m sorry, I thought you were over her a long time ago.�
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“I am.” Travis raised a weary grin. “Her name – it’s just a shock, I reckon.”
“Yeah, well, she lost her job at some big firm or other out in Houston,” Brady went on, his voice apologetic. “Came back home, living with her sister.”
“So she set out her shingle in town?”
“So I heard. You all right to go see her?” Brady watched him anxiously as Colton dismounted.
“Sure, why not?”
Inside, where his brothers couldn’t see, Travis’s soul wept for what he had lost twelve years ago.
Chapter 2
“Hey there, lil’ guy.”
Addie lifted the crying baby from his crib, holding him against her shoulder with his wails loud in her ears. “Wassa matta, Gus?”
With her arm under his bottom, she rubbed up and down his small back in an effort to soothe him. His cries softened slightly under her ministrations, and she felt him turn his face into her collarbone as though seeking to hide.
“Is he okay?” Callie called from the other room. “Does he have a stinky diaper?”
“Do you have a stinky diaper, kiddo?” Addie asked, though she had not smelled anything when she picked him up. “I’ll check,” she called back to her sister.
“Thanks, I’ll be in as quick as I can.”
Addie walked around the small room, gently bouncing the infant while crooning under her breath. Gus, almost six months old, slowly ceased his crying. When he calmed, she stopped walking and carefully set him on his padded changing table.
Before moving back to Honey Creek to live with Callie, her older sister, Addie didn’t have much experience with babies. She had only absently considered the possibility of having her own one day, but was too busy pursuing her career to give the idea any serious thought. Now with her nephew gazing up at her with huge blue eyes, it occurred to Addie that soon she might be too old to have kids.
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