His Heartbroken Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

for…and all Mason could do was think of Libby.
    “Did she seem all right to you last night?” he asked Luke as the two of them worked side-by-side, transferring hay from a horse-drawn wagon into troughs in the paddock for the cows to eat.
    Luke shrugged, then jammed his oversized pitchfork into the load of hay. “Her husband died suddenly. They’d been married for almost ten years.” He paused, heaving hay into the trough with a pinched frown. “I don’t think I’d be half as calm as Libby is if something were to happen to Eden. Then again, I don’t have sons to be strong for, like she does.”
    Mason grunted in reply, walking to the front of the wagon to coax the horses a few yards further down the paddock fence. “I guess you’re right. But are you sure Libby’s quiet is calm and not…not something else?”
    Luke wiped the sleeve of his coat across his damp brow. He jammed his pitchfork in the ground, then leaned against it for a moment as he mulled over the question. “Libby’s always bottled up her feelings. I remember when our parents died. She cried at first, then she went all stony and stoic.”
    “I forgot that the two of you were old enough to remember when they died.” Mason jammed his pitchfork into the hay in the back of the wagon, but left it there for a minute. “Must have been hard.”
    “Hard? Yes.” Luke let out a humorless laugh and launched into motion again. The two of them heaved loads of hay into the next trough. “Damn scary is more like it. We all got dropped at the door of a third-rate orphanage because no one in the family wanted us. Libby was old enough to manage to keep us together, but I swear she didn’t smile for a year until things were settled.”
    Even though that tragedy had been over for decades, Mason’s gut still twisted with anger on Libby’s behalf. “She’s a strong woman, a fine woman.”
    “She is.” Luke agreed with a nod. “Or at least she looks that way to everyone else.”
    Mason stiffened, frowning at Luke.
    Luke met his eyes, then rolled his shoulders and continued to work. “My sister doesn’t know that I used to hear her crying in the night, when she thought the rest of us had gone to bed. When something’s wrong, she’ll hold it inside as long as she can, then she’ll fall apart. I’m just glad that so far, there’s always been someone there with her when that time came.”
    “Teddy’s death.” Mason breathed out the words on a sigh. He didn’t know what he meant by them. Logging accidents happened all the time. He’d known more than one man who had fallen to his death while topping a tree. That’s why toppers were given extra pay. And why they were usually single, slightly older men.
    So why was Teddy topping a tree when he had a wife and children on the ground?
    “You and Libby were friends before you and Travis and Cody moved down here, weren’t you?” Luke asked, pulling Mason out of his thoughts.
    He wasn’t fast enough to hide the directions those thoughts had gone in, or how Luke’s question felt a little like an accusation. “Yep,” he answered, putting his back into his work.
    Luke stopped, leaning on his pitchfork again. “Cody mentioned something to me once, after we’d spent a night at The Silver Dollar. The boys were talking about Bonnie’s girls, picking out which one would be the best match for each of us.”
    “Drunk?” Mason grinned. Alcohol had its vices, but the conversations they all got into once the whiskey had been flowing were priceless.
    Luke snorted. “Of course. Anyhow, Billy had just finished pairing you up with Pearl, when Cody contradicted him. He said there’d only ever been one girl that you’d taken a serious shine to, and the trouble was that she was married. Only you didn’t realize at first and nearly made a fool of yourself.”
    “Cody said that?” Mason avoided Luke’s gaze.
    “Yeah. And he said that the girl in question had a butt-ugly, ornery, no-good brother too. He looked