The Cowboy Meets His Match (Fatherhood, 45, Band 1512) - Softcover

Delaney, Roxann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373755333 ISBN 13: 9780373755332

Verlag: Harlequin American Romance, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

One Big Secret… 

Broke and in need of a job, barrel racer Erin Walker has returned home after years of traveling the rodeo circuit. But the only job available is working for the man who broke her heart and left her pregnant and alone. Not a day goes by that she doesn't wonder about the son she and Jake had, whether he's happy with his adoptive parents or what her life would have been like if the three of them had become a family. 

Jake Canfield just wants to get close to Erin again and perhaps rekindle what they once had. But is that possible? It depends on the sudden appearance of the one person who could bring them closer together!

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Roxann Delaney wrote sixteen books with Harlequin, primarily within the Harlequin American Romance series. The creator of the wonderful town of Desperation, Oklahoma, her novels feature rugged ranchers and handsome lawmen and the strong women who love them. Roxann passed away in 2015.

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Stretching out her legs in the tall grass, with her eyes closed and her back against the rough bark of a tree, Erin Walker smiled at the sound of a fish breaking the surface of the water. Content, she pulled in a breath of warm, June afternoon air and started to toe off her boots. But the sound of a second, a third and then a fourth splash followed, all louder and each sounding closer than the one before.

That was no fish.

She sat up straight, her heart rate increasing as she looked out onto Lake Walker, the large pond on the ranch near Desperation, Oklahoma, where she'd grown up. That was when she spotted the naked man, standing not twenty yards away in the pond.

Erin felt an eerie flash of déjà vu but blamed it on the shock of the moment. Surely he hadn't seen her. If he had, he would have left immediately. Instead, he stood hip deep in the water, his back to her, his arms stretched above his head, flexing muscles that would have caused a half-blind ninety-year-old spinster to suffer a case of the vapors.

If only he 'd turn around.

Just as she finished the thought, he started to do exactly that. She quickly but carefully scooted down to lie on the ground, while praying he was too busy enjoying his skinny-dip to notice her. From her prone position, all she could see was the very top of his head—and that was only if she stretched her neck uncomfortably. She was also aware that if she moved, he might notice her. With a silent sigh, she lowered her head, settling in to wait him out.

Closing her eyes so she could concentrate on any sounds, she yawned, her previous late night catching up with her early morning. After a few minutes, she heard the sound of movement in the water. He was leaving. Or maybe coming closer. She couldn't be certain, but the sound seemed to be getting farther and farther away, until it stopped. Straining to listen for confirmation, she thought she heard the soft whinny of a horse, but she couldn't be certain.

More time passed, as she waited for some kind of indication that he was no longer in the area. When she heard nothing else, she finally felt relatively safe.

"Did you enjoy the view?"

She froze. She knew that voice, would never forget it and was trapped by the person it belonged to. She suspected he was waiting for an answer, but she needed time to settle the slamming of her heart and attend to her need to breathe. The first was impossible; the second was achieved by forcing air into her lungs.

She refused to open her eyes, her heart pounding in her ears as she struggled to gain control. When she finally opened them, there was no one there. No person, no horse, no evidence that what she'd heard had been real. For all she knew, she'd fallen asleep and dreamed it. If so, it had been her worst nightmare.

In spite of being fairly certain she'd imagined the whole thing, she remained cautious as she got to her feet. The first thing she did was check to make sure no one was lurking behind her in the bushes, but there was nobody there.

"No, it didn't happen," she muttered.

She used the walk back to her childhood home—now her brother's house—to clear her head. She'd been dreaming. That had to be it. But why? It had been years since—

Unwilling to think about what had happened long ago, she forced her thoughts to something else. When she first decided to visit Lake Walker, she'd thought she would do some riding, but the idea of saddling and mounting the horse that had replaced Firewind only made her miss him that much more. Erin prided herself on not being particularly emotional, and she didn't want to give herself any reason to get that way, so she'd chosen to walk instead. She welcomed the exercise. She hadn't been sleeping well for weeks, and she'd been so tired lately—it made sense that she'd imagined someone had spoken to her, although the man in the pond had definitely been real.

Back at the house, she stepped inside the screened porch, then opened the door that led into the kitchen, where she found both of her brothers seated at the table. "I see you took—"

"It's about time you got back here," Luke, the youngest, announced.

She looked first at him and then at Dylan, who scowled at her. "What?" she asked. "I'm not allowed to get some exercise?"

Dylan leaned back in his chair, his scowl deepening. "We have somewhere to go. We meaning you, too."

"Did you forget?" Luke asked.

She had forgotten, but they didn't need to know that, now that they'd reminded her. "Of course not. We're meeting up with the others at Lou's Place."

"Right." Dylan crossed his arms on his chest. "And we're expected to be there in thirty minutes."

"No problem," she replied. "It won't take me long to get cleaned up and—"

"Dean is expecting to meet you there."

She stared at Luke, hoping her confusion appeared believable. "Dean? Dean who?"

"You know damn well who," Dylan said. Pushing away from the table, he stood and walked over to her, his six-foot-plus body towering over her. "Dean Franklin. You remember him. We introduced you to him at the fall festival last October."

"I have no idea who you're talking about." No way would she let herself be set up with another man her brothers had chosen for her. And if they insisted, she would pack up her motor home and leave. She had plenty of friends on the rodeo circuit who would be happy to give her a place to park until she found somewhere permanent to live. For that to happen, she needed money, and she refused to ask her brothers for it.

"You agreed to meet him," Luke said.

Erin shook her head. "No. You—both of you—set it up and told him I'd be there. I never had a say in it or in the other men you've tried to marry me off to since the leaves started falling from the trees last October. Give it up, boys. I've had enough of your game. You act like I can't get a man on my own. No, let me rephrase that. You act like I can't even attract a man. Let me assure you right now, that isn't the case."

"Did I say it was?" Dylan asked.

"You didn't have to. It's as plain as the noses on your faces that you're trying to fix me up with somebody.

With anybody."

"You've got this all wrong."

"Do I? I think it's you two who have it all wrong, and you need to butt out of my life."

This time it was Luke who spoke. "We're only trying to help, Erin."

"Well, don't," she said. "If I decide I need a man—which I don't—I can find one on my own. Understand?"

"We're concerned. We want to make sure you have someone to take care of you."

Her mouth opened and words came tumbling out. "Take care of me? You both seem to forget that I've been on my own for almost fourteen years. I've traveled the rodeo circuit across this whole country and even into Canada…by myself. Nobody was holding my hand. Nobody was keeping me company or taking care of me."

Dylan nodded. "Which is all well and good. But you're older now. Don't you want a family?"

She felt the twinge of regret that always hit her when she thought of what she'd done, nearly seventeen years before. But they didn't know, and she wasn't about to tell them. Ever. She'd had her reasons for staying away from the ranch and for remaining single. And at the age of thirty-four, she wasn't about to get...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harlequin American Romance
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0373755333
• ISBN 13: 9780373755332
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: HarperCollins Publishers Ireland; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; Mayor Street Upper 39/40; Dublin; D01 C9W8; Irland