by MISSY HARPER
AuthorHouse™ LLC
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© 2013 by Missy Harper. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
Published by AuthorHouse 10/11/2013
ISBN: 978-1-4918-2274-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4918-2273-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4918-2242-5 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917970
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1 Coming Home
Chapter 2 Dinner Theater
Chapter 3 Rylee Revisited
Chapter 4 Coming Clean
Chapter 5 Kitchen Cat Fight
Chapter 6 The Negotiator
Chapter 7 The Difficulty With Being Forgotten
Chapter 8 Starin At Whiskey
Chapter 9 First Dates
Chapter 10 Pushing Rylee’s Butons
Chapter 11 Giving Up On A Dream
Chapter 12 Breaking Rylee
Chapter 13 Not You Again!
Chapter 14 Quality Time With Pop
Chapter 15 Ball Buster, Round Two
Chapter 16 Girls Can Ride Bulls, Too!
Chapter 17 What Happens In Vegas Doesn’t Always Stay In Vegas!
Chapter 18 Facing The Van Der Brook’s
Chapter 19 Leaving Without Rylee
Chapter 20 Welcome Home, Son
Chapter 21 Moonlight Confessions
Chapter 22 Educating Rylee
Chapter 23 A Shoulder To Cry On
Chapter 24 Education Can Be Tough On A Guy!
Chapter 25 Fist Fights And Retail Therapy
Chapter 26 Holy Crap! I Kissed A Dude!
Chapter 27 Spoilin For A Fight
DEDICATION
To my sweet husband, David. You believed in me and offered the chance to make my dreams come true. I’m forever grateful for all the opportunities you’ve given me, and I’m proud to call you my husband, and my best friend. I love you, Sweetie.
Prologue
“Ya’ll know momma said to leave those bulls alone.” Rylee said to sixteen year old Ethan Hawkins.
“I’m afraid I ain’t gonna be able to do that.” With a tap to her nose and a quick wink, Ethan infuriated his best friend’s little sister.
“Why?”
That was Rylee, always feeling the need to challenge what a man had to say. Ethan grinned as he shook his head. He’d probably have strangled her years ago if she wasn’t Tanner’s little sister… besides, if he’d done that, who would he have to torture with his teasing?
“Cause I’m intending to ride that there bull, Runt.” He informed her as he tugged on her ponytail and shot her a another infuriating wink. It didn’t help extinguish her fury when he called her by the nickname he’d given her so long ago.
He knew the kid had a huge crush on him, but she was only twelve years old, not to mention Tanner’s favorite and only sister. Someday she’d likely grow into those knees and elbows, but until then she was a strange looking little kid.
Her father, Thor Van der Brook, was a former Norwegian businessman turned Montana rancher. He’d married Regina Yellowtail, a full-blooded member of the Crow Nation. They’d bought a ranch just outside Fort Smith, in Big Horn county Montana, where they went on to produce four of the most unusual looking children ever known to man.
Thor was a huge man with big, broad shoulders and Viking features, complete with icy blue eyes, a chiseled face and hair that was so blonde it was almost white. Regina, on the other hand, brought to the table her beautiful Native American features. She had wide set eyes, high cheekbones, a rich reddish brown skin tone and a smile to die for.
Tanner and Rory, the youngest boy, seemed to have faired the best in the unusual gene pool and managed to avoid most of it’s pitfalls. They looked mostly like their mother except for their father’s icy blue eyes and chiseled Viking features. It’s got to be said, it was kinda weird looking on a couple a fellas that were supposed to otherwise look like Indians.
Oliver was the complete opposite of his two brothers. He was the spitting image of his father. However, he had his mother’s Native American complexion. Again, it should be said, Native American coloring on a Viking was pretty freaky looking.
Fate, however, had played a round of Russian roulette with Rylee’s genes, and she had definitely lost that battle. She had her father’s height and a mixture of her parent’s hair coloring, causing her own hair to have wide stripes of blonde and deep brown. Her poor eyes just couldn’t seem to decide what color they wanted to be either. It was like her parent’s genes got all mixed up, and she ended up with the worst from both.
Her eyes were mostly icy blue like her brother’s, but somehow they were streaked with brown from her mother’s gene pool, giving her eyes a tiger striped effect. She was tall and skinny and straight as a board. Her teeth were too big for her head, plus she was a major tomboy and an accomplished smart ass.
Kids teased Rylee about her weird eyes and hair, but the truth of it was, if she ever grew into those knees, elbows… and seriously weird features, she just might be the prettiest thing in the whole state of Montana. She already had the prettiest smile, even with those big old teeth.
“You gonna get your fool self killed! That’s what you’re gonna do, Ethan!” Rylee fussed at him, keeping pace beside him, but he only grinned at her as he headed for the bull chute in his father’s back pasture.
“Let it be, Rylee.” Commanded her brother, Tanner. Being the oldest, he was always in charge and his word on any subject was final. Too bad Rylee didn’t recognize that rule.
“Yeah, Rylee, if you want to hang with us you better quit your whinin’” Her second oldest brother, Oliver, told her.
“Well, if anybody’d know anything about whinin’ it be you!” She shot back, just itching for a fight.
“Better leave her alone, Ol. She might just run back and tattle on us.” Her youngest brother, Rory, teased.
“I will not!” Rylee insisted, defiant as ever and prepared to fight her brother to prove it.
“Will too.” Rory, weighing in at a whopping eleven months older than her, stated as if it were a fact.
“Oh really! Well, which one of you pukes told dad about me ridin’ bare back, huh?” She argued back with narrowed eyes and a jutted out chin. Her tiger striped eyes daring any of them to admit to it.
“You two gonna argue all day, or are ya gonna watch the man ride?” Tanner cut in to stop the argument.
“He ain’t no man!” Rory scoffed as he adjusted his cowboy hat.
“If he’s got the balls to get on that thing he is.” Oliver assured his little brother as he pointed to Ethan situating himself atop the bull in the chute.
“I could do that!” Rory boasted under his breath.
Ethan held his hand high in the air and nodded for Tanner to open the gate. The bull flew sideways out of the chute and bucked with all the poor guy had to offer. Rylee watched through her fingers as Ethan went up and down, backward and forward and then round and round in a circle as the b
ull tried hard to get him off his back. Sometimes, with all four hooves off the ground, the bull bucked even harder, trying to throw Ethan to the ground so he could stomp him to death. Ethan hung on for what seemed like forever, but really, how long can a girl hold her breath?
Chapter 1
Coming Home
It had been ten years since Ethan left for the PBR, Professional Bull Riding Competition. It turned out that all the practice in the back pasture had paid off. Ethan had gone on to be a six time World Champion. Now, life had intervened, and he was coming home.
He’d made a few trips home over the years, but never for more than a few days at a time. Between riding those stupid bulls, all of the events he’d needed to attend and photo shoots he’d had to sit for, his free time had always been extremely limited.
He never seemed to worry too much about the family ranch because his dad and brothers took care of everything. His family supported his career, and he did help support the ranch financially, so he felt no real obligation to come around all that often.
In fairness to Ethan, I guess it should be noted that a bull rider’s career only lasted so long. A smart bull rider, if such a thing can even be said, should make the best of the time he’s healthy enough to ride, and that’s just what Ethan had done.
Four years into Ethan’s ten year career, his older brother, Nick, got out of ranching all together. He opened a restaurant, much to his father’s dissatisfaction. Three years later his younger brother, Sam, joined the military and left Montana all together. That left Ethan’s sister, Kelly, and her city boy husband to help Pop run the ranch. Ethan came home for a few days when Sam announced he was leaving and helped his dad, James Hawkins, hire plenty of hands to help run the ranch. One of those hands was Earl Sampson, who was soon promoted to ranch foreman.
Two years ago, Wilson Faulkner, from down at the feed store, called to let us know something just didn’t seem right with old man Hawkins. Mr. Wilson had called Thor because he and James had been best friends since the day Thor had moved to Montana. Everyone knew Pop and Nick didn’t get along, and talking to Kelly’s husband about anything to do with ranching was a complete waste of time.
Mr. Wilson knew he could trust Thor not to spread rumors throughout the small town, and as it turned out, he had a reason to be concerned about Pop and the Hawkins Cattle Company. Mr. Wilson was concerned about Pop because he’d made his weekly order from the feed store three times that week. Unfortunately, he didn’t remember a one of them. Thor took this information to Nick, and they began to look into it. What they found was very disturbing. They discovered the feed store was not the only place this was happening, and the ranch was in danger of foreclosure.
Nick tried to get involved and help his father, but James was having nothing to do with it. Nick and Kelly were worried they were going to lose the ranch. They were concerned about what effect that might have on their father and Ethan, so they asked Thor if he could try to help. James’ male pride wouldn’t allow him to accept any help from his friend. Feeling he had no other choice, Nick made the painful decision to call Ethan home. Ethan had always been James’ favorite child, and they were hoping he could get through to him before it was too late.
Ethan was in the middle of the bull riding season and was ranked number one at the time. He was expected to win the championship again, which would bring him another million dollar bonus, plus all the endorsements that went along with being a World Champion.
Now would probably be the time to confess that Rylee had been in love with Ethan Hawkins since she was ten years old. Not that he’d ever seen her as anything other than an aggravating little runt.
She’d made a science of avoiding Ethan on his trips home. To her credit it was no easy feat, considering he was friends with her brothers and like a son to her own parents. She had this crazy notion that if she could just avoid seeing him long enough she would stop loving him and be able to move on with her life.
This belief prompted her to meet with her dad and Nick to suggest a different approach to the problems surrounding the Hawkins Cattle Company. An approach that involved not calling Ethan. She was in her senior year of college and had been working for Nick as a manager in his restaurant for the last couple of years. Her dad had long ago turned over the business side of his ranch to her also. She’d been running the Yellowbrook ranch since before she’d graduated from high school!
Rylee convinced Nick it might be better if she went to James and asked for a job in his ranch office instead of bothering Ethan during the season. It worked! James, Papa J to Rylee, hired her immediately. She was able to straighten out some of the financial mess that was now their ranch. Ethan stayed on the tour with absolutely no knowledge of what was going on back home, and Rylee was most happy, and hopeful, that her bright idea had lived to see another day.
That was over two years ago, and now the situation had progressed to a point where James Hawkins’ safety was in question. He was no longer simply forgetful. He now seemed to live most of his days in the past. He’d been injured twice on the ranch and couldn’t tell anyone how it had happened. He’d set a couple of accidental fires, and he’d made a number of really bad business decisions before Rylee was able to obtain the proper paperwork to stop that from happening in the future.
The ranch hands had taken turns looking after him to make sure he stayed out of trouble, and Kelly and her husband had moved into the main house with him after the second fire. But, when he got lost on his own ranch and couldn’t find his way home, Earl came into the office to tell Rylee it was time to make some decisions about his boss. He would no longer be able to insure his safety come winter, and he wouldn’t have the old man freezing to death on his own ranch.
Nick had made the call to inform Ethan of his father’s health, and as everyone expected, Ethan left the pro tour immediately and was on his way home. He’d stayed gone, lived his life and made a lot of money over the past ten years. However, he’d never forgotten where he came from and had always intended to return when his ride was over.
“Hey, Rylee, saw your jeep outside. I didn’t think you’d be in today.” Earl said from the doorway of the ranch office at the Hawkins Cattle Company.
“Yeah, I needed to make sure everything was ready for Ethan to take over when he gets here.” She answered, looking up from the desk she’d been staring at for some time but not actually doing any work on.
“You wouldn’t be waiting for Ethan to get home now would ya, Rylee?” Earl teased as he grinned and turned his hat in his big, callused hands.
“No.” Rylee answered without much emotion. The last thing she needed was for people to think she still had feelings for the guy. “I have to work tonight at Nick’s Place, and I’m sure Ethan’s going to be curious about what needs to be done around here.” She told Earl hoping he’d buy it.
“So you’re plannin to keep on avoidin him, is that it?” He questioned with a smug smirk.
“No, Earl.” She sat down the papers she’d picked up so it didn’t look like she’d just been sitting there daydreaming. “Look, I may have had a thing for him when I was ten and even when I was fifteen. Okay, fine, even when I was twenty, but I’m all grown up now and that part of my life is over.”
“Is that right?” Earl fixed his eyes on her as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yes, it is.” Rylee insisted, staring back at him.
“If that’s the truth of it, then why not just come in here in the morning and go over all this with him so he knows what’s what?”
“Because by morning he’s going to know just how much we’ve kept from him, and he’s not going to be very happy about it. I’d much rather not be in this tiny little office when he finds out I’ve been running his ranch for the past two years, and he knew nothing about it. I’d actually prefer to not even be in the state, thank you very much, but that would be cowardly of me.” Rylee offered him a cheeky smile.
Her answer wasn’t total bull. It had a fair amount of truth
to it, actually. Ethan had a bad temper and a really short fuse. She’d decided she didn’t want to be anywhere around when that dynamite ignited. However, there was the more pressing, not to mention terrifying, issue of the fireworks she knew would surely go off inside her stomach when she saw him for the first time in ten years!
“Well, I’ll be damned. Something just ain’t right with this picture.” Ethan declared as he stepped inside the back door of the Van der Brook house, letting the door slam behind him.
Thor, Oliver and Tanner sat around the table talking but there wasn’t a thing cooking on the stove, and it was dangerously close to dinnertime. Thor looked up from his newspaper and grinned.
“If you’d a brought your wanderin tail home more often you’d know Regina doesn’t cook on Tuesday nights.” Thor told him as if he were angry with him, but everyone knew by the grin on his face he was just messing with the guy.
“Well, hell, that’s the only reason I stopped by here. If ya ain’t got nothing to eat…” Ethan shot back as he faked turning toward the door. He didn’t get very far, or even finish his sentence, before the towering Thor stood and enveloped the man in a monster hug.
“Good to see ya, boy! I just wish it was under better circumstances.” Thor said as he patted him on the back and gave him a good shake.
“Yeah, me too. Man, things are just bad all around aren’t they?” He said, shaking his head and rubbing his big hand over the back of his neck. “Pop’s in a nursing home. I bet my ranch is in shambles, and now this! I can’t believe momma Gina ain’t cookin tonight. What we gonna do, fellas?” He grinned the trademark smile that had made him a household name all across the country.
“Same as we do every Tuesday night. We eat Bologna sandwiches.” Oliver told him as he made for the refrigerator to gather the fixings for his dinner.
