Part Time Cowboy (Copper Ridge Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

walked out of the kitchen, through the entryway and onto the porch. He stood for a minute and looked out at the property, and at the light in the distance. The light that was coming from the Catalog House.
    Sadie Miller was in there. On a five-year lease. Damn it all, it didn’t get much more disrupting to his sense of order than that. Of course, the past couple of years had been one big, giant disruption for their family.
    They all felt the loss of Jessie. And they all felt the hole that her death had carved into Connor. He wasn’t the same. He never would be.
    But then, that was the way this place was. Or at least, that seemed to be the way love was for their family. You got it, you lost it.
    It had started with the first generation of Garretts on this land. His great-great-grandfather had ordered that house and had it built. His great-great-grandmother had lived in it for only two years before getting pneumonia and dying.
    Then there were his great-grandparents. His great-grandmother had died in childbirth, leaving her husband a shell of a man, barely capable of keeping the land going, and not entirely managing to keep track of his children. His grandfather had run off with a woman from town, leaving his grandmother to raise her kids alone. And then there were his parents.
    Their mother had gone when Kate was a toddler. Off to God knew where. Somewhere warmer and sunnier. Somewhere with men in suits instead of spurs.
    A place without needy kids and the smell of cows.
    But it had left her husband to sink into a mire of alcoholism and despair.
    It had left Connor to grow up at fifteen. And for Eli to follow right along with him.
    And all that pain had started in the house that now sheltered Sadie Miller. It seemed fitting in some ways. Since she was a pain in his butt.
    He walked down the steps to the driveway, then headed down the path that took him the back way to his house.
    Sadie Miller wouldn’t be a problem, because he wouldn’t let her become one.
    He was the law around here, after all.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    S ADIE WOULD VENTURE down into town today at some point. Grab some supplies. After she’d taken inventory, of course. She knew there were some tools in the shed, per the typed-up—and very brief—note Connor had left on the kitchen counter.
    But until she had some clue about what sort of work she might need to do, the tools were fairly useless. She had some basic information on the minor flaws in the house, but there were other things she wanted to tackle.
    Most of the place had the original wood paneling. Wainscoting that went halfway up the walls, which were painted a deep cream. The wooden detail was echoed on the ceiling, crossbeams forming a checkerboard over the plaster ceiling.
    It looked like the crown molding in a few of the rooms had been replaced at some point, and it didn’t match. Which meant she was going to need to take it down, and then mount some new stuff.
    That wasn’t a part of her original plan, but she had a little cushion for some surprises. And money set aside for some major projects, like the addition of a back deck. And since structural issues were Connor’s problem, she didn’t anticipate running into anything that would absolutely kill her budget.
    Some people might call her a flake, but she was a well-educated flake with a basic understanding of money management.
    She walked into the kitchen, and to the walk-in pantry that was larger than some bedrooms she’d had in her years of apartments. The solid wood shelves had a fine layer of dust over them. A mop and broom standing in the corner were the only residents, except for a few daddy longlegs hanging on the ceiling.
    She made a mental note to take care of those guys later and walked back out into the kitchen, opening up cabinets that were mainly empty. There was one cabinet filled with mismatched teacups, and she counted that as a good find.
    A quirky touch to add to the place. As inspiration went, it was a good place to