Reunited with the Rancher

by Brenda Minton

  “Would you like to see him?” the nurse offered.

  “Yes, please.” Isaac stood and followed her to the door. He turned to wait for Kylie.

  “I think you should go.” She joined him at the door. “Isaac, I’ll see him before he leaves. You should go to him now.”

  “Okay. When I’m done, you’re going in.”

  She was in the waiting room when he returned. He sat down next to her and buried his face in his hands. “I’ve never seen him like this before.”

  Kylie put a hand on his back. “Were you able to talk to him?”

  “Yes. He’s awake. You should go in.”

  She got up and slowly made her way through the doors of the emergency room. A nurse pointed her in the right direction. Jack’s eyes caught hers as she entered the room.

  “You gave me a scare.”

  “Sorry.” His voice shook and she had a difficult time hearing him. “I’m good. Carson?”

  “We called them.”

  “Good. You two.”

  “Nope. Not right now.” She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, but weaker than he’d ever been before. She was so used to him being strong.

  “Yes,” he said. Stubborn man.

  “Jack, everything will be fine. I know it. In my heart I know you’re going to be fine.”

  “Me, too.”

  And then they arrived to start the transport and she was asked to leave. She told Jack she’d see him in Tulsa. As she walked through the hospital, she realized she needed coffee. Isaac would probably like a cup, too. There had to be a vending machine nearby. She just needed a few minutes to compose herself.

  She saw Donnie standing at the end of a hall; a sign midway down pointed to the cafeteria. “Donnie. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

  And then she saw the police officer on the floor, a dark bruise on his forehead. “Donnie, we have to get him help.”

  “Not on your life.” Donnie grabbed her as she turned to run.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Carson and Colt headed down the hall to the room number they’d been given. Daisy had remained in the waiting room with Maggie and Andy. She wasn’t quite ready to see their father. Carson entered the room first; Colt came in behind him. Isaac stood to greet them, shaking Carson’s hand first and then Colt’s.

  Carson guessed he should make the introductions. “Colt, this is our brother Isaac.”

  “Guess I should say its good to meet you. Not exactly how I would normally greet a sibling.” Colt moved to the bed and looked down at the pale, sleeping form of their father. “How is he?”

  “Better. Stable and they’re talking about doing the open heart surgery next week. They want him a little stronger before they open him up.”

  “Has the doctor been in today?” Carson asked.

  “Yeah, he was here.” Isaac pointed to a chair. “One of you can sit. I need to stand for a while.”

  “I’ll sit.” Colt didn’t mind taking the only chair in the room. Carson had to give his brother credit. Very little bothered Colt.

  Jack’s eyes opened. “Carson. Isaac, does he know?”

  Isaac shook his head. “No, I’ll tell him.”

  “Know what?” Carson stepped closer to the bed. “That you’re stubborn and having your surgery a little sooner than you would have liked? Colt’s here.”

  Jack turned his head to face Colt. “Hello, stranger.”

  Colt came to his feet and moved to the side of the bed. “You gave us a scare but I’m glad you decided to hang around.”

  “Me, too.” Again Jack turned to Isaac. “Tell him.”

  Isaac motioned to the door and Carson followed. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s Kylie.” Isaac blew out a breath in obvious frustration. “Man, Carson, I just... He was there and we didn’t know.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Donnie was at the hospital yesterday. Kylie left Jack and went looking for coffee but she met up with Donnie. He’d knocked out the cop who had him in custody. She tried to run but Donnie grabbed her. Fortunately the cop came to and used a stun gun on him. It could have been worse. He planned on taking her hostage.”

  “Where is she?” Carson knocked Isaac’s hands off him. “Is she here?”

  “No.” Isaac pushed him up against the wall and held him there. “She’s in Grove at the hospital there. She has a broken arm and she had a pretty good concussion. They’re keeping her for a couple of days.”

  “I have to go.” Carson walked back to his father’s room. “Jack, I have to go.”

  “I know you do.” Jack reached for his hand. “Take care of her.”

  “I will.” He should have been there. He never should have left.

  Colt followed him from the room and stopped him in the hall. “You didn’t do this.”

  “What?”

  “That look on your face. Put away the guilt and go take care of Kylie. You ought to pull that picture out of your wallet and show it to her.”

  The picture. He’d forgotten. “I’ll take the rental car. You all can ride with Isaac.”

  “Sure thing, bro. When you get there, let me know how things go. You know, I’m in that picture, too, and I think I’m the guy in the suit next to you.”

  “Yeah, I doubt it.” It had felt good to joke but as he loaded the kids in the rental car, the fear washed over him again.

  For the last few years he hadn’t prayed much. But then he’d gone back to Hope, and prayer seemed like the right thing to do. Not only did he pray for Kylie’s healing, he prayed that she would see a way to forgive a man whose heart had a few scars but was healing nicely.

  * * *

  When he walked into her room, she was sleeping. He sat down on the chair next to her bed and pulled Maggie and Andy onto his lap. Rambo stood on his hind legs and put his paws on the bed, whining as he looked at her lying there. Silent. Still. Carson didn’t blame the dog. He felt a lot like whining, too. Her face was bruised. Her arm was in a cast. She moaned quietly in her sleep.

  Carson waited until her eyes flickered open and she saw him. A pained smile shifted her mouth and then she grimaced. “What are you doing here? You should be in Tulsa.”

  “Jack disagreed. He said I needed to be here. And Rambo missed you. He asked if he could come home.”

  “He can’t come home. He’s Andy’s dog now.”

  “I see.” Carson sat there a moment, studying her face. “I guess you don’t get a say in the matter. You obviously need a service dog. It would do you a lot of good.”

  “I have Skip,” she whispered. “I need water.”

  He got up and set the kids down in the chair. He raised her slightly and lifted the mug of water to her lips. She drank and then smiled up at him. “I missed you.”

  “We missed you, too.”

  He pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “I meant to get this framed but for some reason I stuck it in my pocket.”

  He unfolded the picture that Andy had drawn the first night of Colt’s visit.

  “What is it?”

  He looked at it and grinned. “I think it might be our invitation.”

  “Invitation?” she asked as she reached for the paper that he kept just out of reach.

  He turned the picture sideways and then long ways again. He smiled at her over the top of the sheet of paper.

  “Carson?” She giggled a little. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m trying to do this, but Rambo is in my way. He kind of assumed the position I had hoped for.”

  “Whining at the side of my bed?”

  “No, not really.”

  Maggie began to laugh. “It’s Andy’s picture of Kylie.”

  “A picture of me?”

  “No.” Carson looked at it.

  “Show
me?” she pleaded.

  “I think it’s the story of us.” He placed the picture in her hands and then he moved Rambo over and took his place, kneeling at the side of the bed. “I believe in puppy love, but that dog has to find his own girlfriend.”

  * * *

  Kylie laughed and cried as she looked at the picture and the man at the side of her bed, down on one knee. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she realized this was their story. She lifted the picture and smiled at the version of their lives that had been drawn by a little boy not quite five who obviously wanted his own family.

  The stick figures in the drawing done in brown and green crayon were obviously their family. A dog, a boy and girl, a few cowboys in very large hats and a grandpa with gray hair. But in the center of all of those people was a couple and she wore a dress, he wore a tie. It looked like a picture of a very happy ending.

  “Get up off the floor,” she told Carson as she held the picture to her cheek. “This is all I need.”

  “No, you need more.” Carson touched the fingers that stuck out of the cast. She had just painted her nails. That stupid Donnie had messed up her manicure. He’d bruised her hip. He had really ruined her day.

  “What more do I need?” she asked.

  “A proposal. Once, a long time ago, a thirteen-year-old boy loved the prettiest girl in Oklahoma. And then he left and life took them both down different paths.”

  “Until they met again years later only to find she’d been sleeping for twenty years, waiting for him.”

  “But he kissed her.” Carson stood up, and she couldn’t help but hold her breath as their gazes clashed and he leaned in. “Is this appropriate?”

  She nodded. “I think so. We have chaperones.”

  He captured her lips for a quick but sweet kiss. “He kissed her, and promised to kiss her more. Every day if she would like. For the rest of their lives.”

  “Daddy,” Maggie giggled. “Don’t do that.”

  “Marry me,” he said. “Let’s make this story complete. Marry me and raise my children with me. I love you, Kylie. We know each other’s secrets, faults, heartaches. But we can surely find other things to discover.”

  “I don’t want to live in Chicago.” She shrugged as she felt tears burn behind her eyes, hoping he would understand.

  “That’s good because we don’t want to live in Chicago either.”

  Maggie clapped her hands. “We want ponies and kittens.”

  Andy slid out of the chair and moved to the bed. “I miss you.”

  That did it. Tears streamed down her face. “Carson, hold that child up here so I can kiss his cheeks.”

  Carson lifted first Andy for a hug and kiss and then he lifted Maggie. But Maggie had other plans. She slid from his hands and cuddled against Kylie’s good side. And it felt so good to have her there.

  “I hope that clinic is still empty. I’m going to need a job.”

  “I think your dad has been saving it for you, hoping you would come to your senses.”

  “It took a while but I got here. Finally.”

  “I love you, Carson. And I love our family.”

  Epilogue

  They had the picture Andy had drawn framed, but first they had copied it and created their wedding invitation:

  Jack West would like to invite you to the wedding of his son Carson West to his soon-to-be daughter, Kylie Adams. The ceremony will take place on the Fifth day of May at First Church of Hope. No gifts please. Donations can be made to the Wounded Warrior fund or your local VA.

  Kylie stood in the church vestibule with Jack, because he insisted on being the man who gave her away. She smiled at the procession going before her. Daisy and Isaac, Eve and Colt, although Colt seemed to be looking for someone in the pews and Eve was avoiding looking at Jaxon. Andy and Rambo were the ring bearers; the ring was attached to a pillow on Rambo’s collar. Maggie was the prettiest flower girl ever with her blond curly hair and big brown eyes. She tossed the pink rose petals as she sang to herself.

  It was perfect. It was the wedding she’d once dreamed of, more than twenty years ago when two thirteen-year-old kids thought they were in love.

  Now they knew the truth. It was definitely love.

  Jack squeezed her arm. “You ready to make this journey?”

  “I’m more than ready,” she said, leaning briefly against his shoulder.

  The wedding march began to play and Jack walked her down the aisle to her groom. Carson took a deep breath as she came to stand beside him.

  “You know I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I love you more and more every day,” she replied.

  “Could we start the ceremony?” The pastor smiled as he asked. “Because we can wait if you all have something you want to share with everyone.”

  “No, I think they all know what we want to say.” Carson took her hand in his.

  “You don’t hold hands until I tell you,” the pastor reminded. “It’s part of the ceremony.”

  “The ceremony is taking a long time.” Maggie yawned and then tossed more flowers.

  Everyone laughed.

  The pastor began. “This is the story of a couple who found each other, lost each other and found each other again. It’s a story of a couple that found faith, went through the fire and came out on the other side refined as gold.

  “They will go through amazing times, loss, heartache, joy and tribulation, only to go through it all again. Because this is life. It isn’t perfect. It’s guaranteed to be messy. But somehow this couple will survive.”

  Carson and Kylie beamed at each other, but truthfully she just wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to walk out of this church, her hand in his, knowing that their story didn’t end here. It was a whole new beginning for them all.

  They would be one family. Forever.

  * * * * *

  If you loved this story,

  be sure to check out the miniseries

  Bluebonnet Springs

  Second Chance Rancher

  The Rancher’s Christmas Bride

  The Rancher’s Secret Child

  from bestselling author Brenda Minton

  available now from Love Inspired!

  Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Dry Creek Daddy by Janet Tronstad.

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  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoy the first book in the Mercy Ranch series. Mercy Ranch and the characters who live there are already favorites of mine, and I hope they’ll quickly become your favorites, too.

  Carson and Kylie share a very broken past and they come together still searching for a way to put their lives back together. What they find as they try to maintain their separate lives is that God has always had a plan for the two of them. And that plan has brought them both to Mercy Ranch!

  Thank you for taking this journey with me to Oklahoma. I continue to be uplifted by your many emails, messages and kind words.

  Blessings,

  Brenda

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired story.

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  Dry Creek Daddy

  by Janet Tronstad

  Chapter One

  The sky was still dark when Mark Nelson pulled his pickup to a stop in front of the café, the only place in the small town of Dry Creek, Montana, that was usually open this early. The eatery’s door was shut, but before he could switch his engine off, a woman slipped a delicate hand around the blind covering the café’s large window and flipped the Closed sign to Open. His headlights were on and Mark saw a woman’s profile and thought he recognized the hand. He wasn’t fast enough to get a good look at the ring finger before the hand was withdrawn, but he told himself it had to be bare. He hadn’t seen Hannah Stelling in four years—not since they’d been high school sweethearts—but surely someone would have told him if she had become engaged.

  Mark shut off the engine and stepped out of his cab. The gravel under his boots crunched as he walked to the café and climbed the steps.

  The one fact he didn’t need anyone to tell him was that Hannah did not want to see him. He wasn’t sure why she had moved back to Dry Creek and taken a job at the café, but a dozen Return to Sender letters told him that it wasn’t because she missed him.

  He paused briefly before turning the knob and opening the weathered door in front of him. The overhead light was bright inside the café and Mark involuntarily blinked. He heard the sound of a metal fork hitting the linoleum floor before his eyes adjusted and he saw Hannah staring at him across the empty room. She wore a red T-shirt and denim jeans. Her face was drawn, her auburn hair pulled back in a long ponytail.