Rescued By Love (Carson Hill Ranch: Book 8)

By Amelia Rose

A Contemporary Cowboy Romance Novel

As the time draws near for the twice-yearly cattle drive, Mr. Carson is feeling his age. He wants to be there when his grandkids--all nine of them--experience the magic and the history of the drive for the first time. Emma Carson enlists her best friend to come from Houston to help wrangle the kids while their parents wrangle the herd.

But from the moment Dee steps off the bus and comes face to face with a vision from her dark past, trouble begins. Can she and Hawk patch up their differences long enough to save the kids from revenge gone wrong, and is the past ever truly behind them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Crown
• Release date: Jun 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311418869

Amelia Rose

Amelia Rose holds a PhD in Literature and Language; she specializes in teaching positive, self-reliant principles to children and adults of all ages.  Dr. Rose lives with her husband and three children in the Hudson Valley, New York area, where she enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her family and friends.   Matthew Maley is an artist with nearly twenty-five years in the fields of Illustration and Design. His work has appeared in publications such as Archie Comics, Marvel, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Children’s Television Workshop. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, daughter, and a variety of animals.

Book preview

Rescued By Love

Carson Hill Ranch: Book Eight

AMELIA ROSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Amelia Rose.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

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

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

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About Amelia Rose

Chapter One

Bernard Carson stepped up onto the small folding stool he kept behind the driver’s seat and pulled himself up behind the wheel of the mammoth RV. He mopped the sweat off his brow with the handkerchief he kept in his pocket these days and turned over the ignition, reaching for the air conditioner controls at almost exactly the same time, despite the fact that the sun wasn’t even thinking about coming up over the horizon yet. As he drove the oversized bus from the storage barn behind the house around the front to the yard, the temperature inside slowly began to cool off.

He pulled up in front of the two-story ranch house and cut the engine, waving from his seat as his sons, their wives, and his passel of grandkids swarmed the bus. The kids all piled on board as their fathers loaded all of their gear beneath in its roomy bays.

Are you sure about this, old man? Casey asked, eyeing his father with a skeptical smirk. It’s a long way to Missouri without hauling nine kids, but with the kids…well, let’s just say I bet it feels like twice the distance.

Nonsense! Bernard boomed in a merry voice. We have movies for the DVD player, plenty of bed space for anyone who gets cranky, and Kimberly has already promised to be my special helper when it comes to the younger ones. We’re gonna be just fine.

Casey wasn’t as sure. Even though his daughter, at twelve, was more responsible than some of the fully grown cowboys who worked the sprawling Carson Hill Ranch, he knew his brothers’ kids had a tendency to gang up a little bit. They’d been raised almost entirely on the 800,000 acre ranch and it showed, especially in the ones who were more wild animal than human. Their mamas tried to keep up with things, like using actual napkins instead of shirt sleeves and making sure to tack sir or ma’am onto most of their sentences, and for the most part, it worked. They really were good kids, but they were the product of riding, roping, and running, day in and day out.

Are you sure you don’t want someone else to ride with you? You have enough kids there to form your own baseball team, and a couple of those sluggers are just barely making it to the bathroom in time on a regular basis. You did know that, right, Dad? Casey continued to look skeptical. It didn’t help that every time he looked over his shoulder, one or more of the kids’ moms was silently pleading with him to talk some sense into Bernard. I mean, those kids are quiet for now, but don’t let that give you a false sense of security. Once that sun comes up and that first bowl of sugar cereal hits their little gullets, they’re gonna bounce this RV all the way to the market. You won’t even have to give it any gas, it’ll run under the sheer power of hyperactive kiddos.

Well then, we’ll save a ton of money this year, won’t we? Bernard asked with a forced smile, already aware that his kids thought he was crazy for this. The entire population of Carson Hill Ranch, both genetically tied to the land and hired on, had known that Bernard did things a little differently than most farm owners. He’d been the one to bring back the notion of cowboys driving their cattle to market over the course of a matter of weeks, all stemming from one horrible event when he was a new ranch owner following his own father’s passing.

At the time, they did business just like all commercial farms; they trucked in feed instead of growing it themselves, they drove their cattle to slaughter in massive eighteen-wheelers, and they kept their stock penned for most of their lives, having been told that the less walking they did, the more tender the meat. After one fateful accident on the interstate that claimed the lives of several hundred head of cattle, Bernard took a good long look at what was happening to his family’s legacy. Instead of ranching just for the profit he could squeeze out of the land and his cattle, he brought his massive property back to the ways things were done when his ancestors first staked the claim on Carson Hill.

Driving the cattle to market—or droving in this case, as the cattle meandered from their home in south Texas to the markets in Missouri, walking no more than thirty miles a day to keep their flanks tender and prevent exhaustion—was a twice a year event that Bernard looked forward to almost as much as his ranch hands did. Even though he’d taken to driving the oversized bus from point to point along the way in the last ten or fifteen years, he still made time to pass off the driving duties once or twice during the trip and get in the saddle for a day.

Son, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to talk me out of bringing the kids this year. And because I know you’d never do such a thing, I can only guess which ones of my daughters-in-law put you up to this, he accused his first born, one of the six sons his wife had given him before she died from complications following the birth of the tiny bundle who would have been their seventh child and only daughter. As such, family meant so much more to Bernard than it did to many people, and hauling nine grandchildren on a month or so long road trip was nothing compared to not having those children around.

You caught me, Dad, Casey said, chuckling as he ducked his head. It was easy to confuse the fact that his dad’s slightly slower gait and slightly longer nap times these days didn’t mean there was anything at all slower about his mind. And yes, they’ve been on my case about this trip ever since you first brought it up. They’re just worried, that’s all.

You go back and tell ‘em their babies are safer with me than anywhere else on the planet! he roared, pounding his chest for emphasis. Like I would ever let something happen to one of my angels…

It’s not the kids we’re worried about, Dad, it’s you! You don’t even have a relief driver! Casey said, throwing up his hands. I know we’re all gonna take turns and switch off riding in the RV each day, but we’re not doing that ‘til we’re well out of Texas. At the rate we can move the herd and the speed this giant thing can go, you’re looking at twenty-four hours cooped up in a tin can with this rowdy bunch. I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, that’s all.

You have to remember, son, while you all are out with the herd every day, sometimes for several days at a time, this ‘rowdy bunch’ is back at the house with me! They have school but once they’re done for the day, what is it you think they do, exactly? They come right on in my office and raise cane until I take ‘em out for a ride! Casey’s father laughed out loud, enjoying the telling every bit as much as he did actually spending the day with his grandchildren surrounding him. Casey, we’re gonna be fine. And this will be a trip they’ll remember for years. The ones who are too young to remember it this year, well… we’ll just have to do it again so they can remember it! Now go on in the house and wake ‘em up, we gotta get on the road.

Casey shook his head and trudged back to where his siblings were waiting to pounce on him for any news that Bernard had changed his mind. They knew better than to hope he would, given how fun-loving and cantankerous he was, especially because when he set his mind to some crazy plan or another, he moved mountains to make it happen.

It had only been a few years ago that the old man had decided the whole family, children and all, would ride on horseback to their hunting lodge for a Thanksgiving feast. Never mind that two of the women were pregnant and several of the kids were still in diapers, his two-day horse trip went as he planned. And never mind the fact that Carson Hill employed a full-time cook and three kitchen assistants, meaning that the family members rarely made a sandwich, let alone a holiday meal; the family had still managed to whip up a halfway decent traditional dinner.

Even crazier was Bernard’s original wild hare that set the entire family in motion. Years back, he’d gotten it into his head that his sons would never find wives of their own, considering that the ranch sat on 1,200 square miles and was an hour’s drive by truck to the nearest small town. At that time, the ranch didn’t even have a telephone line, relying on a satellite phone instead. That somehow didn’t stop Bernard from getting on the Internet and setting up a dating profile for his oldest son, striking up an online relationship with the woman who became his first daughter-in-law, Miranda.

No, if they had to really admit it, Bernard’s crazy plans somehow worked out. Where everyone else was unsure, he was confident, always forging ahead like the truly frontiersman he was. His plans were often built around a solid foundation of not having to be responsible for the outcome, and being entirely responsible for all of Carson Hill. It was good to be in charge.

Nothing, huh? Joseph asked, throwing a supportive arm around his brother’s shoulders. So what’s the harm? The kids will drive him crazy, he’ll call us to come get them, then we’ll keep going. There’s no harm in letting him have a little fun.

And what if it doesn’t turn out like that? Miranda demanded, already picturing her rambunctious son hanging from the interior of the RV as it barreled down the highway, Bernard breaking every speed limit in his effort to get to the next town to ditch the kids.

"You mean, ‘What do we do if he doesn’t scream and veer off onto an unfinished overpass just to put an end to it all?’ Then it turned out fine! What are you so worried about? It kinda sounds like you’re worried they’re going to have a great time without