“…Lily, are you my mommy now?”
Lily and Sandy shared watery eyes at theinnocent question coming out of sweet Jesse’s mouth.His facescrunched up and he looked puzzled.
“Yes, please, Jesse.I would love to be yourmother.”She was crying and Sandy couldn’t keep his composureeither.Lily bent down to give Jesse a big hug.He hugged herback.
“Good!”he said with happy grin.
Sandy wiped his eyes.“Jesse, you’re going tohave a little brother in a few months.What do you think aboutthat?”
“…Oh, goody!I’ve always wanted abrother.”
Jesse got back on his horse and shaded hiseyes to look around.
“What are you doing, son?”
“Looking for my new brother,” Jesse saidloudly enough for a few wedding guests to hear him.
Sheriff Bud Moody winked at his wife andsaid, “See?I told you this wedding would be fun.”
THE END
Would you please take aminute towrite a review of Rancher’sGirl?Click on review at the very end.Theauthor would appreciate hearing your comments.
As a token of theauthor’sthanks,here’s a sample chapter from the next book in theseries.
Continue reading for an excerpt from Colt’sstory,WHISPERER
PROLOGUE
The night he was born was a wild one.Thewind blew stoplights down, thunder rattled the town over and over,and rain beat so hard at the windows, the glass was in danger ofbreaking.Even with all the turbulence, his mother Lily was calmwhen he was put into her arms for the first time.She knew he wouldbe special.The line of his face was perfect.Smiling faces agreedwith her.
Growing up, they always knew if hedisappeared, they could find him in the stables with the horses.The stables would frighten his brothers and sisters, but never him.From the beginning, his knack with horses was uncanny.Boy andanimal seemed to understand each other and it was inexplicable.Hisfather, Sandy, had a favorite Appaloosa named Anna.Sometimes hecould be found curled up by Anna’s feet, but she never harmedhim—an incredible feat for a horse 15.5 hands high, weighing fivehundred pounds.
He and older brother Jesse would often ridewith their father to check the cattle on their sprawling ranch.Hismother wouldn’t let him sit a horse until he was three, but he wasa natural even then.By the time he was eight, he and the vetfigured out problems with the horses together.For a while, itlooked like he wanted to be a veterinarian.--- But fate had otherplans for him.
Colt Johnson knew that communicating withand helping horses was all he really wanted to do.And that talentwould take him to many places, familiar and unknown, in hislifetime.It would be his love of horses that would lead him toanother love.
CHAPTER ONE
The Sierra Mountain Ranges in Nevada wererugged, strong and insurmountable.Sierra means ‘saw’ in Spanish,which is appropriate because the mountains look like the teeth of asaw with their granite rock offerings dwindling down to lowerelevations.Just up the road was beautiful Lake Tahoe, a clear,freshwater lake with an elevation of over 6,000 feet.Variouscanyons in the glacially scoured area included Hetch Hetchy Valley,Yosemite and Kings Canyon.The groves of giant sequoias occurredalong a narrow band of a lower altitude on the western side of theSierra Nevadas.On the east side lay the town of Naples, just southof Carson City, where the Johnson family had resided for sixgenerations and would endure for many generations more.Their ranchwas a sprawling two thousand acres.Cattle raised there wereunique, expensive and sold all over the world.Colt Johnson was asixth generation Nevadan.
“Dad, I know what you’re saying, but I thinkI need to get more practice,” said Colt.
“Son, I hear what you’re saying too, but whydo you need to go to Sonoma?Why do you think Grandpa Sam can helpyou?”Sandy, his father, was trying to understand his thinking.
“Grandpa’s been training horses for probablyforty years and I think I would learn a lot from him.”
“Honey, I think Grandpa would learn morefrom you, than you from him,” said Lily, his mother.“You know youhave a way with horses that none of us understands.WhySonoma?”
“It’s not something I can explain, but feel.That probably makes no sense -- my saying that feelings count morethan facts, but that’s about it.”He looked at his mother forconfirmation.She was still so beautiful with all that luxuriousblack hair.No wonder his fair-haired father had fallen head overheels for her.But he also knew Lily believed in fate.It’s whatbrought her to Naples in the first place to meet her belovedhusband, Sandy.Lily smiled at him.
“You know, Grandpa will love having you, aswill Grandma Jeanne.They are up there at this time of year andwill gladly help you with anything.Like they did with Meggie.”
Sam Cable, Lily’s dad, had married JeanneJohnson, Sandy’s mom, the year after Sandy and Lily had married.Their relationship went back a long way – back to when they were ingrade school.They lived part of the year in her home in Naples,Nevada and the rest of the year at Sam’s ranch in Sonoma, up innorthern California.Sam and Jeanne had taken in theirgranddaughter Meg for a while, while she attended the Culinary ArtsInstitute in Napa Valley.It appears that Meg, named for Lily’smother Margaret, had inherited her grandmother’s cooking skills aswell as her name.
Sandy frowned at him.“I thought you andJesse would take over the ranch together someday.What happened tothat idea?That’s what you said you always wanted.”
“Jesse can take care of the ranch for now.I’ll help him when he needs it, but I want to try some things on myown.It’s what I need to do.”Colt looked at his mother and father,whom he loved.He was his parents’ first child together—Hisbrother, Jesse, had been five when Sandy married Lily.He knew whata special bond they had with each other and it was partiallybecause of him.It was hard to break away.
