The Rancher's Reunion, page 1
“You want to help me clean out stalls?” Becca asked.
“Looks like you’re done,” Cash said. “My timing is perfect.”
Becca could have argued that, but she swallowed down the argument. “Your timing for what?”
“For my invitation.”
Heat rushed to her face. “Invitation to what?”
“To be my plus-one for a wedding,” he said.
“What wedding? And when?”
“Today,” he said. “And the wedding is Sadie Haven’s.”
She gasped. “What? But you can’t go. Your brothers will be there. Your...” She stopped herself from saying “Dad”; he always got upset when she did.
He’d met his biological father, and that had only made him more bitter. More determined to leave his old life and his family behind him.
She’d wanted to ask him why he stayed in her life, but she’d been afraid that if she did, he would drop her, too, like he had everyone else who’d loved him...
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to Willow Creek, Wyoming, where Sadie March Haven Lemmon has been so very busy! Not only has she matched up several of her grandsons but she’s found the perfect match for herself! And if you were at her wedding in The Doc’s Instant Family, you know she had a surprise guest show up at her nuptials! In The Rancher’s Reunion, you’ll find out how that happened and so much more about the Haven and Cassidy connections. But if you haven’t read the previous books, you’ll be fine, as there is so much else happening in Willow Creek...and especially between best friends since childhood Cash Cassidy and Becca Calder. Becca isn’t a Cassidy or a Haven, but she’s a lot like them because she’s been keeping some big secrets of her own!
The Havens/Cassidys and everyone else in Willow Creek—even Feisty the dog and Midnight, that mercurial bronco—have become so real to me. They are like a branch of my family that I’m always thrilled to visit. I’ve heard from some readers and some of my real family and friends that they feel the same way. Please reach out and let me know what you like most about Willow Creek! I’d love to hear from you.
Happy reading!
Lisa
The Rancher’s Reunion
Lisa Childs
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling, award-winning author Lisa Childs has written more than eighty-five novels. Published in twenty countries, she’s also appeared on the Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble and Nielsen Top 100 bestseller lists. Lisa writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal and women’s fiction. She’s a wife, mom, bonus mom, avid reader and less avid runner. Readers can reach her through Facebook or her website, lisachilds.com.
Books by Lisa Childs
Harlequin Heartwarming
Bachelor Cowboys
A Rancher’s Promise
The Cowboy’s Unlikely Match
The Bronc Rider’s Twin Surprise
The Cowboy’s Ranch Rescue
The Firefighter’s Family Secret
The Doc’s Instant Family
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Hotshot Heroes
Hotshot Hero Under Fire
Hotshot Hero on the Edge
Hotshot Heroes Under Threat
Hotshot Hero in Disguise
Hotshot Hero for the Holidays
Hunted Hotshot Hero
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
I am dedicating this book once again to the strongest woman I know—Sharon Ahearne—and to the daughters and daughters-in-law who are lucky enough to have her as our role model for life: Maureen Ahearne Brown, Sue Brown Mullins, Wendy Ahearne, Becky Ahearne and Jenn Brown.
Contents
PROLOGUE
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
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EXCERPT FROM THE RIGHT COWBOY BY CHERYL HARPER
PROLOGUE
Three months ago...
IT HAD BEEN seventeen years since Cash had stood right where he did now, on the gravel driveway between the barns and the two-story farmhouse. Despite all the time that had passed, he could almost hear the echo of his shouts from so long ago. “You lied to me! You’ve been lying to me my whole life!”
After all the fear and grief and anxiousness he’d grown up feeling, the lie had been unforgivable to him. And so he’d said unforgivable things, too. “You’re not my dad! I hate you! I’m never coming back!”
Even now, he flinched at the guilt and regret over what his eighteen-year-old self had said in the heat of the moment. He’d regretted his words almost immediately, but he’d been too stupid and too proud to take them back.
The summer he’d spent between high school and college, without his family, had seemed interminable. And so he’d returned to the ranch before his classes were supposed to start, but then she had been here.
Now, she opened the door, just as she had then, and stepped out onto the sagging porch. He waited for the flash of anger he’d felt seventeen years ago, for the resentment that she’d taken his mother’s place way too soon. He waited for the anger that the man he’d thought was his father for most of his life had replaced Cash’s mother so quickly, as if she hadn’t mattered to him at all.
At the time, Cash had assumed that it meant he hadn’t mattered at all, either, that coming back had been a mistake. Clearly, he’d thought, he wasn’t missed.
She’d asked him then, “Are you a friend of one of the boys? They’re at school now for orientation. They’re just picking up their schedules and getting their pictures taken, so they should be back soon if you want to wait.”
How hadn’t she recognized him? Were the pictures of him, the few he’d consented to having taken, gone already?
She’d glanced at the house, and her hazel eyes had filled with such concern. “Maybe you should wait out here, though. JJ’s resting...”
Cash had turned and walked away from her, believing that there was nothing at the ranch for him anymore. His mother was gone and nobody else had really needed him.
But now it was seventeen years later and he was older and wiser, though probably just as stubborn as he’d always been. Still, he had returned when she’d called him.
“Doc CC?” she asked as she walked down the porch steps toward him. Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face.
Since she hadn’t recognized him seventeen years ago, she wouldn’t recognize him now. He wasn’t the skinny teenager he’d been then. Plus, he was blond and blue-eyed instead of dark haired and dark-eyed like his brothers. Seventeen years ago, he had discovered why.
But now he just nodded at her in acknowledgment and acceptance of the nickname he’d been given when he’d toured with the rodeo as a veterinarian. His partner in their veterinarian practice in Willow Creek, Wyoming, called him by the nickname, too, so much so that all of their clients only referred to Cash that way. Between the nickname and how much he’d changed, nobody had recognized him as a Cassidy from the Cassidy Ranch in Moss Valley, an hour’s drive from Willow Creek.
“Yes, you called me about a mare,” he said.
Darlene from Cassidy Ranch. Was she a Cassidy now? Had JJ married her?
He had no idea, but she’d been with JJ nearly as long as Cash’s mother had been. A pang struck his heart over how easily a person could be replaced.
“Thanks for coming out on such short notice,” she said as she walked up and extended her hand toward him.
Out of a sense of loyalty to his mother and with the suspicion that he was the only one who still felt loyalty to her, he hesitated for a moment before he shook Darlene’s small hand. It was heavily calloused, and there were dark circles around her eyes. Despite how run-down the ranch looked, she must have worked hard to keep it going. But when he followed her into the barn, all the stalls but one were empty. And the hay in the loft was just a few short stacks of bales that looked moldy with age.
Where were his brothers now? Marsh was only a couple of years younger than him, and the twins only two years younger than Marsh, which meant they were all in their thirties now. Why weren’t they helping at the ranch?
He felt that pang in his heart again, but this time it was of longing, of wanting to know them. Maybe Becca was right. Maybe it was time to come home for real, not just for a furtive visit like he had when she’d listed this property for sale. In stealth. At night. He hadn’t been able to see then what he did now: how run-down it was.
“What’s going on with the mare?” he asked. “Do you have any concerns about her health?”
The woman reached over the stall door and lovingly stroked the nose of the brown thoroughbred horse. “No.” She sighed. “I’m selling her, and I’d like to give the new owner a veterinarian’s report of her health.”
While he di d as she’d requested and stepped inside the stall to examine the mare, Cash yearned to ask for a health report, too, though he was interested in JJ, not a horse. With the way that the ranch looked, he could guess JJ wasn’t doing well. Seeing Cash now probably wouldn’t be good for him...
Or for Cash.
So he limited his questions to asking Darlene only about the horse and nothing else. He’d been gone too long and had lost his right to ask the questions he wanted to. He’d lost his family, although he wondered if he’d ever really been a part of it. And now the ranch was for sale.
After he checked over the mare and got back in his truck, he reached in his pocket for his lighter but it wasn’t there. He must have lost it. Even though he had never smoked, he always carried it with him, in his pocket, like someone might carry a rabbit’s foot for luck. The family heirloom was pewter, engraved with the initials CC in the shape of horseshoes. Cash wasn’t sure if it had ever brought him luck or even the clarity and solace he’d sought for so long.
Now that it was gone, he’d decided not to miss it...like he tried not to miss his family or his home.
CHAPTER ONE
Now...
“WHOA, EASY BOY,” Cash murmured softly to the bronco. He ran his hand over the horse’s velvety black coat. Midnight shifted away but didn’t rise up and kick out at him like he had the first few times Cash had stepped into the stall with him.
And he didn’t let out that horrifying cry that sounded more like a screaming banshee than a horse.
“Yes, see there, we’re making progress.”
But as if to call him a liar, the horse pawed at the ground of the stall, kicking some of the fresh wood chips up at Cash. Then he let out a sound, but it was more of a whinny, or maybe a mocking snicker, than a scream.
“What are you doing to my horse?” a soft voice asked.
Cash glanced up at the little face peering over the top of the stall. Eyes as blue as his own stared in at him. The little boy had blond hair, too.
“You’re Dusty Chaps?” Cash asked, infusing his voice with awe. “The famous bronc rider?”
The little boy giggled. “No, silly. That’s Uncle Dusty.”
“I thought Midnight was Dusty’s horse,” Cash said. “Or did you win it off him?” Like Dusty had won the bronco because the horse’s original owner had bet the rodeo champion that he couldn’t stay on him.
He had.
Rumor had it that that was the only time Midnight had ever been ridden. And even though Cash hadn’t worked with the rodeo for a few years, his old friends kept him apprised of all the gossip. And in Willow Creek there was a lot more gossip than there was in the rodeo, and most of it was about the Havens.
The little boy giggled again. “I can’t ride him...yet...”
But he clearly had the ambition to try.
“Not for a good long while, young man,” a deep voice scolded him.
Cash looked up from the little boy. He’d expected to see one of the Haven men. And while this was a Haven, it was Sadie March Haven, the matriarch, not one of her grandsons. She had to be eightysomething, but she stood straight and well over six feet tall. She had wide shoulders and long white hair. He’d met Sadie a few times when he’d come out to the ranch to treat the livestock. And he realized now, hearing her voice again, that she was the one who’d requested this appointment in the barn this morning.
“Ma’am,” he said in greeting.
She nodded, then said to the boy, who must be one of her great-grandsons, “And nobody will try to ride Midnight until the horse whisperer here can get him to behave less erratically.”
The little boy’s forehead scrunched up beneath his wispy blond bangs. “Behaving less what?” But before Sadie could answer him, he focused on Cash again. “And you’re what? You whisper to horses?”
Cash grinned. “That’s not exactly how I—”
“But you were whispering to Midnight when I walked up!” he interjected in an almost accusatory tone.
“You ran up,” Sadie said, and Cash noticed she was a bit flushed, as if she’d been running to catch up.
“Midnight needs to get his carrots,” the boy said, and he brandished a bunch of them over the stall door. The horse took them carefully, his lips just brushing the kid’s skin. The little boy giggled again.
“Okay, Caleb. Midnight got his carrots,” Sadie said. “Now you have to get back up to the kitchen and wash up for breakfast. We have a busy day ahead of us.” And her face flushed a deeper shade of red.
Cash waited until Caleb hopped off the bucket he’d been standing on and ran out of the barn. Then he stepped out of the stall to talk with Sadie.
“Is Midnight the reason you requested this appointment?” he asked, glancing back at the bronco. While temperamental, the horse was perfect. Maybe that was why he was so temperamental, because he could get away with his bad behavior.
Sadie had turned away, staring after the child. Cash wondered if he was one of the boys who’d been in the crash.
Everybody in town talked about the Havens and the horrific accident that had happened that spring during a freak ice storm. The accident had claimed the lives of Sadie’s grandson and his wife while sparing their children.
And he’d heard the rest of it, too. The other secret that JJ had kept from him and his brothers. That JJ Cassidy was actually Jessup Haven. But while Cash had the same mother as his brothers, he wasn’t JJ’s son. Which meant he wasn’t related to Sadie, JJ’s mother. He wasn’t a Haven.
“Everything okay?” he asked, bringing them both back to the present.
She let out a shaky little breath and smiled. “Yes, everything is okay. Or mostly. But today is more than okay. It’s extra special.”
He realized now that her face was flushed with excitement, not exertion. His curiosity compelled him to ask, “What’s so special about today?”
“I’m getting married.”
“Congratulations,” he said.
She made a noise that sounded almost like her great-grandson’s giggle, then blushed a deeper red.
And Cash found himself wishing...
That she was his grandmother and not just his brothers’. But he’d learned long ago that his wishes didn’t get granted, so he’d tried to stop making them and just live his life alone. Well, mostly alone.
At least, he would always have Becca, his best friend. He only wished he could be as good a friend to her as she was to him. He felt terrible about putting her in an awkward situation between him and his estranged family.
“Thank you,” Sadie said. She was staring at him intently now, her dark eyes narrowed.
“You must have a lot to do today, so I don’t want to take up too much of your time,” he said. “Why did you want to see me this morning?”
“To invite you to my wedding,” she said.
A chuckle slipped out. “That’s kind of you, ma’am, but you don’t know me, and you’re certainly not going to lack wedding guests.”
They’d talked a few times when he’d been here on calls, but that was just about the livestock and horses. He was always careful to reveal very little about himself to anyone.
But the way she was looking at him...
“I know you,” she said, and her voice seemed to deepen even more. “I know who you are.”
Cash chuckled again but uneasily as his stomach did a little flip. “Oh?”
“Doc CC,” she said. “It finally dawned on me what the CC stands for.”
His mind shot to his missing lighter, and he almost shoved his hand in his pocket to reach for it, to run his fingertip over those initials engraved in it. But it was gone, just like his family ranch, just like the family he’d never really known.
Could she know the truth? No. He doubted JJ had told anyone. And that was why he shouldn’t be around them, especially if all the rumors were true and JJ had recently had a heart transplant.
“I know who you are, and I want you at my wedding,” Sadie insisted.
Even if she did know his true identity, she couldn’t know everything. Or she wouldn’t be looking at him like she was now, like he’d seen her look at Jake and Baker, like he was her grandson. “The last place I should be is at your wedding,” he rasped out. He shouldn’t even be here, at Ranch Haven. Every time he came, he risked running into one of his brothers.
