When Love Comes Read Online Free PDF

with him?”
    How could he pick out the weak spots in her plan so quickly? “My mother has wanted a ranch ever since she moved to Texas. She won’t care about anything if you can make the ranch pay for itself.”
    “I have a job that I’ve been away from for a long time. I have a responsibility to my friends, and I like to live up to my promises.”
    She wanted to argue with him, but she couldn’t encourage him to ignore his obligations. She’d offered him the job because she believed he was the kind of man who wouldn’t ignore them.
    “Have your brother tie the bull up or put him in a stall when you take cows in or out of his pasture,” Broc advised. “He may look docile, but any bull can be dangerous when there are cows around.”
    “I’ll be sure to tell Gary.”
    Broc looked like he wanted to say something but changed his mind. “Thanks again. Watch out for your little brother. He’s a good kid.”
    “He’s too full of himself, but I know what you mean. Have a safe trip back to your ranch.”
    Broc mounted up, nodded his head, and headed down the lane. She told herself it was silly to feel that she’d lost something important. Being foreman wasn’t a job that only he could do. Yet the feeling persisted that no one else would be able to do it the way he could, and that was her loss.
    Having had a bath and his supper, Broc stepped out of the diner and looked up and down the street. Like so many cattle towns, nearly every building of importance fronted on the main street. Scattered residences—some with well-keptyards and others with chicken coops and pens containing pigs, cows, or horses—separated the main street from the vast emptiness that was the Texas prairie. Faint trails led outward to the ranches that surrounded the town.
    It was not yet dark, and the street was crowded with people shopping, visiting, or hurrying home. Now and again a child would dash between buildings or across the street, but Broc suspected most of them were at home doing their chores and getting ready for supper. That made him think of mealtime on Cade’s ranch. Cade had been his captain during the war and was the friend he now worked for. Despite the efforts of Cade’s grandmother-in-law to orchestrate their meals according to the aristocratic Spanish tradition, Cade’s sons and his free-spirited cowhands turned every meal into a celebration of their overflowing good cheer. When Cade’s grandfather showed up and the two old people started hurling insults at each other, the atmosphere became positively festive. Once, the cowhands had asked why Cade didn’t try to put a stop to it, but he’d said the two old people enjoyed it too much.
    Broc missed his friends, but there was a restlessness in him he didn’t quite understand. He had enjoyed his time in California with Rafe, but he’d known his home was back in Texas. Not once did he consider returning to Tennessee. He was determined no one in his family would see him as he was now. They’d been told he had died in the war.
    Banishing those unhappy thoughts, Broc turned in the direction of the Open Door Saloon. He wasn’t in the mood to drink, but he needed time to digest what he’d learned when he booked a room at the hotel. Aaron Liscomb had died a year earlier. According to the hotel clerk—who was eager to share everything he knew or suspected—the family didn’t know of the debt hanging over their heads. As far as everyone knew, Liscomb had sold his interest in the saloonand diner to Corby Wilson and used the money to buy the ranch and the bull. It was widely known that Mrs. Liscomb had been encouraging him to do that for years.
    That left Broc in a dilemma. Not only would he be the one to tell the family about an unknown debt, he’d be the one trying to collect money they probably didn’t have. If he couldn’t collect it, he’d go to jail and they’d still probably lose their bull.
    He was curious whether Amanda could really sing. In the years before the