A Family Kind of Wedding Read Online Free PDF

wasn’t more than five acres of level land, and not much more of rolling hills. Most of the spread was mountain-goat country, with craggy hillsides, narrow ravines and a slash of a creek that zigzagged its way through the canyon floor.
    But it was perfect for trail rides and the small cattle drives he planned to organize as part of the working dude ranch he envisioned. Better yet, the eastern flank of the spread abutted a huge parcel of national forest service land that was open for the type of backpacking, hunting or camping he was going to offer to his clients.
    He frowned and wondered if, for the first time in his thirty-six years, he would finally find some peace of mind. “Not a prayer,” he said to the mare, a game little quarter horse who, he’d been told by Max Renfro, the onetime foreman of the place, was named Lizzy.
    Especially not until he found Ralph’s grandson or granddaughter. If there was one. Just because Dave had mentioned ten years after the fact that he thought he might have fathered a kid didn’t necessarily mean it was true. Luke could be chasing after the gossamer fabric of an old man’s dreams—nothing more.
    He clucked to the horse and nudged her sides. They started down the south slope.
    A glint of metal flashed in the distance.
    â€œWhoa.”
    From his vantage spot on the hill, he had a full view of the Isaac Wells place. It had been unoccupied since the old guy had disappeared, but it had attracted its share of curiosity seekers despite the lengths of yellow police tape that had been strung across the main gate. According to Max Renfro, the sheriff’s department was always having to run someone off the place.
    Sure enough, there was a car in the drive—a convertible, he realized—and Luke felt an uneasy sensation stir in his gut. He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a pair of binoculars.
    Lifting the glasses to his eyes, he spied Katie Kinkaid, as big as life, climbing over the fence and ignoring not only the police tape but the No Trespassing sign posted on the gate.
    Luke’s jaw grew hard as he watched her shade her eyes and peer into the windows of the dilapidated old house. Luke had never met Isaac Wells, but his mysterious disappearance a while back was well known. So what was Katie Kinkaid doing, nosing around the neglected spread?
    â€œShe’s a snoopy thing,” he remarked to the horse, then remembered that she was a reporter of some kind or other. She leaned over to look through one window as if she were trying to see beneath a half-lowered shade, and Luke’s gaze settled on her rear end, round and firm beneath her shorts. His mouth turned to sand, and he suddenly felt like a schoolboy for staring at her. Who cared if she was wandering around the abandoned farm? It wasn’t any of his business.
    But the rumors he’d been hearing in the taverns and coffee shops—talk of possible kidnapping, burglary and murder—cut through his mind. What if Isaac Wells had been the victim of foul play? What if he’d been killed, and the murderer was still on the loose?
    It’s not your problem , he told himself and decided he was only borrowing trouble. If there was a culprit involved in the Isaac Wells mystery, he was long gone. There probably wasn’t much danger anyway. The whole Isaac Wells mess was probably blown out of proportion, grist for the slow-turning gossip mill in this part of the country. He took one final look at the fiery redhead. She was standing now, one hip thrown out the way it had been earlier, and as she turned toward him, he noticed the now familiar pucker of her full lips, the arched eyebrows pulled together in concentration.
    He swallowed hard as his gaze skated down the column of her throat to the gap between the lapels of her blouse, to the hint of cleavage he’d seen earlier. He gritted his teeth and looked away in disgust. He wasn’t used to the earthy pull of this woman,