Falling For Love (Carson Hill Ranch: Book 9)

By Amelia Rose

A Contemporary Cowboy Romance Novel.

A lost, bedraggled stranger walks up to large animal vet Dr. Joshanne Ryan's cabin on Carson Hill Ranch in the middle of the night. Romney Jens has been wandering for three days since his car broke down, and Joshanne knew she couldn't just send him on his way. After his first food and drink in days, the stranger is allowed to spend the night in the barn until someone from the main ranch can come take him to his car.
When Joshanne learns that Romney will just have to sit tight for a few days until help can arrive, what does she do? She puts him to work! With her research into a disease that plagues the herd of Carson Hill on the line, there's no time for playing games. But the more Joshanne and Romney learn about each other, the more they learn about themselves.
It's a race against the clock to see if love really does overcome all obstacles, especially when disaster awaits.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Crown
• Release date: Jul 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310026355

Amelia Rose

Amelia is addicted to writing romance books and will do so well into the future. Although growing up her dream was to entertain people and take them on awesome journeys through acting, it wasn't until she was a sophomore in college when she realized that acting was not her best talent. After a decade went by, she discovered that her dream manifested itself into writing love stories full of passion for those just as addicted as she was. Romance stories is in her very soul and through her writing, she expresses elements of it that resonates with her the most.

Book preview

Falling For Love

Carson Hill Ranch: Book Nine

AMELIA ROSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 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

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Chapter One

The sky was beginning to darken when Joshanne finally pushed away from the split rail fence and turned to head back to the small cabin. She turned to look once again over her shoulder at the wounded animal, willing it to live until morning. Deep down, she felt it in her gut that the animal stood a good chance of recovering if it lived until morning, but unlike house cats and lap dogs, cattle did better without the added stress of having a human hovering too closely. She hated to leave the animal, especially with the temperature dipping down at night like it had been lately, and part of her mind worried that she’d wake in the morning to find its lifeless carcass in the pen.

She headed back to the wooden board cabin and climbed the log steps, but instead of going inside she turned around and sat on the top step, looking out at the immense sky and thinking for the millionth time that she was the luckiest person alive. Only a year out of vet school, Joshanne had landed a lucrative opportunity to study one of the chief illnesses that affected the cattle industry. With her expenses covered by agricultural grant funding and the famous Carson Hill Ranch providing her with a place to stay and several test subjects from their own herd, she was set to work on alternative therapies that were provided by various research labs around the country.

The best part, aside from doing a job she loved and one that mattered to the health of the nation’s food supply, was this view. More accurately, it was this entire way of life that appealed to her. This unused corner of Carson Hill had everything she could possibly need, from open sky and solitude to the chance to get away from everything that she had worked so hard to put behind her.

The radio set up on the table inside the front door crackled to life, calling her out of her trance.

Jo? You there? Over, a girl’s voice called through the static.

I’m here, go ahead, she answered, bringing the small handset mic closer to her mouth and pressing its button as she answered, then waiting for the update from the ranch.

Just doing a daily radio check, and letting you know that the supply truck will be out there at the end of the week so get your list together. We’ve got a little bit of mail for you, and a few new shipments from two labs up north and one from China.

Joshanne rolled her eyes. Some of the labs were all too quick to play guinea pigs with these animals, and she’d told the directors at the university more than a few times that she wasn’t accepting any shipments from labs she had not established a direct contact with.

Thank you, Kimberly. I’ll get a list together for you by tonight and call it in during tomorrow night’s radio check. Over. Not one to sit and chat, even by radio and even after spending her days with no one to talk to but the thirty some members of the ranch herd that had been affected, she signed off and clicked the handset back into its holder.

Joshanne said a quick prayer of gratitude for this situation that had called her, tacking on a prayer of hopeful encouragement for the animal whose fate rested in the hands of this latest treatment, then called it a night.

The next morning, she was up before daylight and out the door before she’d even bothered with coffee. Joshanne finished pulling on her work boots as she hopped down from the front porch of the cabin, tying her long chestnut hair back into a ponytail as she marched towards the small pen. She was still some fifty yards away from the pen when her heart sank at the sight of an oversized shape flattened against the sandy ground in the pen. As she approached the hurting animal, the loud sounds of its agonizingly forced breathing seemed to echo off the hills that ringed the property off in the distance.

Joshanne dropped to her heels and closed her eyes, casting her face downward in pained thought. She had really had high hopes for this one, since it had seemed to respond to treatment at first. This poor animal had been one of the more seriously affected ones, and had long ago stopped eating due to the cysts that went all the way to the bone. By the time she’d gotten to start treatment, the cysts in the wretched creature’s mouth had grown to the point that they were threatening to close off the cow’s airway, which was obviously the case now.

I tried, my poor friend, she thought to herself sadly, I really did. I did all I could for you.

Joshanne pushed herself back up to standing and willed herself to walk forward, even as the tears formed at what she knew she had to do. She approached the animal slowly, knowing that a creature that was already struggling for air could quite easily become even more frightened than it already was. Joshanne looked into the cow’s soft brown eyes and smiled lovingly before placing a hand on the broad expanse of bony brow just above the ridge of its nose. She spoke softly to the cow and promised it would be over soon.

Chapter Two

Even though they weren’t technically her cattle, Joshanne hated losing a member of her small herd. These were her animals now, and she was in charge of seeing to them as best she could. She worked night and day to find a cure for one of the most senseless causes of death in the industry, a common problem among the large animals that until now had been treated with painful surgeries and a near-overdose of antibiotics, treatments which not only caused the animal undue hurt and stress but also caused problems with the milk and meat supply.

Having to put down the sweet cow that morning had left her in a sour mood for the rest of the long day, a mood that she only seemed to shake off after a good hike through the pastures accompanied by her dog, Sakuna. The husky’s wolf-like coloring and ice blue eyes never failed to make her smile, but more importantly, made her feel safe out on the wide open flatland.

By the time midday rolled around, Joshanne was at least at peace with the morning’s horrible tragedy, if not happily accepting of it. As a veterinarian she knew that sometimes there was no cure that could stop the hurting, and that an animal had no way of knowing what the two-legged humans were trying to do to help. All they knew was the pain and the fear that came from being sick, and as a vet her responsibility was the health and the happiness of her patients. Euthanizing the sick cow was part of her job as a vet, but it hurt her heart all the same.

After a light lunch, Joshanne and Sakuna took the small herd out for some exercise, only a few at a time since she only had her lone horse to help keep them in line. Fortunately, or not, their illness made them less likely to bolt or stampede, and Joshanne had found out early on that she was more than capable of keeping as many as ten of her patients under control with the help of her sidekick and her mount.

Of course, having been a roping champion in high school and a member of the college rodeo team to pay her way through school had its advantages now. She felt fully at home in the saddle and knew how to prevent a wayward cow from causing too much trouble before it so much as took a step in the wrong direction. Sadly, her charges’ illness kept them from moving too fast or too far, and she hated knowing that the animals were mostly obedient to her calls because they were in too much pain to do otherwise.

The ride did her a world of good. Getting out in the open and taking charge of the animals that still had a fighting chance did wonders for ridding her of the dark mood that had settled on her when she’d had to put down an animal at the start of her day. Joshanne had called in the cow’s demise to the ranch, and checked her watch to see if the group of guys were due yet to haul it away.

It was later than she’d expected, so she called out to Sakuna to help her round up the cows and lead them back to their pen. The cowboys were expected just before nightfall and she knew they’d be hungry when they arrived. The trip from the main ranch house was no easy distance, considering this property once belonged to a separate ranch and had only been bought by the Carsons when the owner passed away unexpectedly.

The distance was a hassle, especially if Joshanne needed something, but it was perfect for her work. The best thing to do for these animals was to quarantine them away from the other members of the 30,000-head herd. Even though lump jaw, the disease she was studying and working on, wasn’t highly contagious through animal-to-animal contact, it was still problematic for ranchers. Besides being such a common ailment among cattle, it did to lead to problems if other members of the herd sensed that something wasn’t right about the affected animal.

Keeping this smaller herd out of harm’s way was the best way to ensure that Joshanne got to complete her work while caring for the cattle one-on-one. This cabin and its surrounding land gave her the perfect spot to do that, even if it meant inconvenience for everyone involved.

By sunset, the sound of hoof beats approaching the quiet of the cabin told Joshanne that the crew was almost there. She checked on the dinner she’d prepared, knowing they’d have brought rough supply packs but also that they’d appreciate the hot food. She stepped out onto the porch and smiled eagerly, genuinely excited to count six horses and their riders.

You guys are certainly a welcome sight! she called out as the riders slowed in the grassy yard. Their horses stomped their feet at the sudden stop, dancing lightly in front of the small structure as they waited for their next commands from their riders.