by Deb Kastner
He admired Avery’s strength of spirit and singleness of heart...
Avery didn’t want this house for her own benefit, but to minister to others.
Jake realized that whether or not they built the resort here or within another small town, many of Avery’s concerns were the same no matter where he went. He’d been smashing into small towns and changing them, for better or worse, since he’d started doing this job.
It gave him a lot to think about.
“I don’t want to argue with you anymore,” he admitted softly, reaching out and taking her hand.
She glanced down at where their hands met, but to his surprise, she didn’t snatch hers away as he’d expected her to do. “Neither do I.”
“Even if we’re on opposite sides?” he asked in a whisper.
“Even then. Maybe especially then.”
“Good.” He hadn’t expected it to be that easy for them to come to an understanding.
He captured her gaze...and saw the same astonishment registered there.
A Publishers Weekly bestselling and award-winning author of over forty novels, with almost two million books in print, Deb Kastner enjoys writing contemporary inspirational Western stories set in small communities. Deb lives in beautiful Colorado with her husband, miscreant mutts and curious kitties. She is blessed with three adult daughters and two grandchildren. Her favorite hobby is spoiling her grandchildren, but she also enjoys reading, watching movies, listening to music (The Texas Tenors are her favorite), singing in the church choir and exploring the Rocky Mountains on horseback.
Books by Deb Kastner
Love Inspired
Rocky Mountain Family
The Black Sheep’s Salvation
Opening Her Heart
Cowboy Country
Yuletide Baby
The Cowboy’s Forever Family
The Cowboy’s Surprise Baby
The Cowboy’s Twins
Mistletoe Daddy
The Cowboy’s Baby Blessing
And Cowboy Makes Three
A Christmas Baby for the Cowboy
Her Forgotten Cowboy
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
OPENING HER HEART
Deb Kastner
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
—John 11:25–26
To everyone who has lost someone dear to them, and for those who are caring for someone who is sick. I know there are no words to make things better, but I pray God’s grace upon you all in a special way. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, so I pray all of us will say “I love you” to the ones we care for in our lives. We don’t know—but God does, and He’s in control of it all.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from The Rancher’s Family Secret by Myra Johnson
Chapter One
“Avery? Earth to Avery...”
Thirty-five-year-old Avery Winslow snapped out of her thoughts and turned her gaze to her best friend Lisa Gibbons, who was dangling a set of keys in her hand right in front of Avery’s nose and grinning like the proverbial cat who’d eaten the canary.
Avery’s heart welled until she thought it might burst clear out of her chest. She had been waiting absolutely forever for this moment, and now it was finally here. She wanted to pinch herself just to make sure it was real.
Technically, forever had actually only been a few months, but she was one of those people for whom, when she decided to do something, she wanted it done now. It was time to put those dreams into practice. Christmas had just passed, and she was finally able to look after her own interests instead of just her family’s Christmas-tree farm.
“It’s perfect,” Avery murmured. “Don’t you think it’s perfect, Dandy?” she asked the black Lab mix at her heel. She always tried to take one of the service dogs in training from A New Leash on Love, her service dog ministry, with her whenever she went out, and today was no different.
Dandy sat and gestured with a paw.
“Good boy,” she said, slipping him a bit of bacon for exhibiting the proper behavior. To Lisa she said, “See? Even Dandy approves.”
Lisa grinned. “Did I tell you, or did I tell you? The moment I saw it, I knew you’d love it—and Dandy, too,” she said with a laugh. “Gotta get his opinion in there, of course.” She swept her arm toward the cabin in a big gesture that fit Lisa’s gregarious personality, and what made her such a great real estate agent. “Talk about it being worth the wait! The cabin won’t even be formally listed yet for another week, but I managed to speak to the owners and snag the keys so we can take a look inside,” she said in a singsong voice. “Get ready to be blown away. You aren’t going to believe this.”
“Was I impatient?”
“As if you have to ask,” Lisa said with a snort. “You’re pushy, too, by the way. It’s a good thing you picked me to be your real estate agent and not someone else. They’d never understand your motivation the way I do. This is by far the biggest passion project I’ve ever seen you take on. You’re usually too buried in the family businesses’ financials to lift up your head and see the world. You think in spreadsheets.”
“Just tell me what I need to know,” Avery insisted, ignoring Lisa’s jibes. They’d been best friends since kindergarten in Whispering Pines, Colorado, and even though they were now adults and Lisa had a family of her own, they still managed to get together for coffee at least once a month.
So, of course it made perfect sense to hire Lisa as her real estate agent when the timing was right for Avery to set her plans in motion.
As they approached the front door, Lisa supplied more information. “You already know the Meyer family from church. They built this cabin when their brood started growing, and they’ve lived here ever since.”
While Avery was familiar with the Meyers, she’d never visited them at their home. She knew they had five children and were faithful Christians.
“The kids all grew up and moved away,” Lisa continued, “and the place is obviously too big for just the aging couple. Six bedrooms and four baths, plus a separate mother-in-law suite. Tell me it’s not perfect for what you have in mind. It couldn’t get better than that if I’d planned it that way.”
Avery examined the outside of the cabin. Tucked into the woods so it was nice and solitary, the peace surrounding the place was tangible. It was only a fifteen-minute drive to the center of town and ten to Winslow’s Woodlands and the dog rescue, A New Leash on Love, which was the real key to the cabin’s location.
“I adore the gorgeous wraparound porch.” She was in love. And she was already making lists in her head—changes she wanted to make, tools and materials she’d need to purchase. Names of contractors to do the work for her.
Organize and Prioritize. That was her motto. “If I add a porch swing in that corner and some outdoor furniture, along with—”
She’d been about to share her thoughts about year-round landscaping and a vegetable garden, as well as a play
ground for visiting children, but at that moment, the roar of a car’s engine overtook the sound of her voice.
What on earth?
Suddenly, a shiny red Mustang came around the curve of the driveway at a speed far too fast for the dirt road, and when the vehicle slammed to a stop, it fishtailed and nearly hit the side of Avery’s blue SUV.
Avery gaped, but no sound came from her throat.
Seriously?
Who drove that way, especially on unpaved mountain roads?
“I thought you said the owners wouldn’t be here this afternoon,” she managed to squeak out.
“They aren’t. I can assure you that person is not one of the owners,” Lisa said, annoyance lining her tone. “As you well know, the Meyers are a lovely older couple who are moving to Arizona for retirement. And that—”
The man unfolded himself from the driver’s seat and stood to his full over-six-foot height, let out a whoop of pure pleasure and waved his black cowboy hat in the air before combing his fingers back through his thick, dark hair and settling the hat on his head. He straightened it as if he were looking at his reflection in a mirror and wanted his image to be just so.
Lisa croaked something else out, but it was entirely inaudible.
Two things struck Avery simultaneously. First, the man who’d exited the vehicle was most definitely not even close to retirement age, and second, she’d never seen him before in her life.
It wasn’t so much that they didn’t have strangers occasionally visiting Whispering Pines. Avery’s own family brought in customers from all over Colorado who wanted the full Christmas-tree-cutting experience or who sought to purchase specialized landscaping during the rest of the year. People needed evergreen bushes or aspen trees, and Winslow’s Woodlands offered a little bit of everything. They were known for being the best.
So, yes, there were often strangers in town.
But this man?
He was as out of place as a blue spruce in an orange grove. And he was on land she intended to purchase—before anyone else was supposed to know about it.
Yes, he sported a cowboy hat and boots similar to those that the men around the Pines wore, but his suit, complete with obsidian cuff links that he highlighted with an annoyingly obvious adjustment, was way over the top for a quiet mountain town. Their lawyers and judges didn’t wear such obnoxiously expensive suits. The whole getup probably cost more than Avery made in a year, and his new boots gleamed from a fresh polish.
Avery fought to withhold a grin, thinking about how quickly those shiny boots would lose their luster with all the dirt he’d raised with his foolish driving.
Served him right.
Then the other thought immediately made the smile drop from her lips.
What was this stranger doing here?
“And didn’t you say the cabin wasn’t listed yet?” Avery said quietly through a dry throat. She coughed to clear her voice. “What does this guy think he’s doing here?”
“It hasn’t been listed,” Lisa whispered back. “I’m positive of that. I have no idea how—”
“Good afternoon, ladies,” said the man as he tipped his hat, accompanied by a sparkle in his deep blue eyes and a grin Avery could only categorize as charismatic. Or maybe obnoxious was the better word for it. He could easily have starred in a toothpaste commercial.
She had a bad feeling about this—a very bad feeling.
As the man approached, the puppy at Avery’s heels started barking and straining against his lead—something he’d been in training not to do. Was he trying to protect her, to tell her this man was bad news?
She wouldn’t have been surprised if that was so. In her experience, dogs were good judges of character. But if that was the case, they lost the battle within moments, as the man quickly won over her dog, crouching before him and holding out his hand palm down so Dandy could sniff it and then scratching the dog behind the ears, earning him a happy welcome lick on his well-trimmed, bearded cheek.
The man chuckled. “You’re a cute little puppy, now, aren’t you?” the man murmured in the high pitch people typically used with animals and small children.
Avery felt frozen to the spot, which was unlike her. While she didn’t exactly consider herself as a people person so much as a businesswoman, she knew how to handle herself. Yet, there was something about this man that threw her off. Fortunately, Lisa stepped into the gap, stepping forward and offering her hand. The man stood to his full height and enthusiastically returned her shake.
He was solidly built, with broad shoulders that pressed at the seams of his suit. Yet Avery didn’t think it was his height that intimidated her. Rather, it was his presence.
“Lisa Gibbons of Gibbons Realty. And you are?”
“Super stoked to be here,” he said in what could only be a genuine Texas drawl. That explained the cowboy hat and boots, anyway. “Not that I mind drivin’, and the winter scenery around here could knock a man’s socks off.”
Avery didn’t want to think about the man’s socks, which were probably made of pure gold. And it didn’t pass her notice that he hadn’t answered Lisa’s question.
“I’m Avery Winslow,” she said, hoping the man would pick up the slack in the names department. “Of Winslow’s Woodlands.”
“Right. Jake Cutter, from Marston Enterprises.”
A tight knot formed in the pit of Avery’s stomach. She had no idea what Marston Enterprises was, but it sounded ominous. This couldn’t be good, a stranger arriving in town representing some big-name company.
Why had this gregarious, ostentatious man shown up at her future bed-and-breakfast? It wasn’t exactly right off the road. More like off the beaten path, which was the whole point of her choosing this place.
“What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly.
He held up both hands, palms out in a sign of surrender, and took a step backward. “Whoa there, Ms. Winslow,” he said with another toothy grin. “No reason to get your dander up. What fun would it be if I gave away all my secrets right out of the chute?”
“It’s Avery,” she said automatically, then immediately regretted it, realizing she’d just eliminated the mental distance between them by putting them on a first-name basis.
“Call me Jake,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, his gaze was gliding over the house and onto the land around it.
“Nice-looking place you have here.”
Avery didn’t yet have it, but she would. Despite the stranger’s unexplained appearance, excitement crept back up into Avery’s heart.
“We were about to take a tour inside the cabin,” Lisa said. “We’d be happy to have you accompany us.”
Avery sent her best friend a glare and raised her eyebrows. What did Lisa think she was doing, inviting the guy in?
Lisa shrugged and gestured to her clipboard. Avery supposed she couldn’t blame her for trying to get new business, especially since the man had shown up without a real estate agent. She was probably thinking about nabbing the guy as a client.
A very rich client.
But not in connection with her future bed-and-breakfast, thank you very much. Lisa knew she wanted this place. There was no way she’d betray her in this. She would have to point this Jake fellow in a different direction, which was, now that Avery thought about it, probably what Lisa intended to do.
As it was, Avery was much more inclined to tell Jake Cutter to get back into his fancy red Mustang and see himself off the property—without taking a tour of the house and land.
She usually didn’t mind a little competition in her life. With five brothers and sisters, she’d grown up with a competitive spirit.
Just not now. Not for this. It was too important to her, and the sooner they wrapped up the particulars, the better.
Apparently, however, this place meant something specific to Jake, as well, though
she couldn’t begin to guess what it was he wanted with the place.
Jake grinned and tipped his hat a second time. “I appreciate the offer—Lisa, was it? But I don’t need to see the inside of the cabin. I’m here for the land.”
* * *
Jake chuckled as he watched the women make their way into the cabin. That Avery Winslow was a beautiful spitfire, tall for a woman, with sparkling blue eyes and her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. He’d have to watch out for her.
It was more what she hadn’t said than what she had. He hadn’t gotten where he was in life today by accident. He had a gift with people. He’d made a study of reading expressions and body language and could practically guess what people thought before they’d figured it out themselves.
And it was clear that Avery Winslow didn’t like him.
Which really should be neither here nor there—unless she ended up being the president of the town council, in which case it could be a very big problem indeed. He needed certain people in this town to be on board with his plans—or rather, Marston Enterprises’ plans—but Avery more than likely wasn’t one of them.
He didn’t know why Avery’s clear rejection bothered him, exactly. In the business he was in, renovating old land and buildings to become upscale resorts, it wasn’t about making friends. He never stayed in any one place long enough to form any real relationships, which was just as well as he didn’t care to make any. He’d pop into town for a few weeks to make the necessary connections, then move on to his next conquest.
That said, most people fell for his natural charm. It was part of what made him so successful. Getting to know people was easy, as simple as switching on his smile. Which was why Avery’s immediate dislike of him set him on edge, he supposed.
He spent the better part of ten minutes walking around the land and surveying the area. He had studied a land map before he’d come, and the company had already decided this was the spot for a grand hotel. It was twenty minutes away from a major ski slope but secluded enough to draw in the type of clientele who Marston Enterprises wanted to attract.
