The Rancher's First Love. Brenda Minton
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Second-Chance Cowboy
Remington Jenkins is back and Martin’s Crossing will never be the same. At least not for Samantha Martin. Her teenage crush is all grown-up, and she’s realizing the full-time rancher, part-time preacher, still holds her heart. Back then, Rem planned to marry her—until her overprotective brothers sent her away. If he can brave her formidable family, Rem’s finally got a shot with the pretty nurse. But first, Sam has a secret that she must share before they can turn their summer romance into a winter wedding…
She’d know him anywhere.
The way he stood against the truck. The way he pushed his cowboy hat back. After all these years Rem was still familiar to her. Her heart did a flip she had to ignore.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I was driving through town and I saw you running. I didn’t want to leave you here alone.”
“I’m a big girl. No one needs to rescue me.”
The words slipped out. Not that he would understand what they meant. He wouldn’t guess that she’d waited for exactly that ten years ago. That summer she’d learned a lesson about love and everything it wasn’t.
“Samantha, I’m sorry they sent you away.” His voice mixed with a coyote’s howl and a train whistle. The night sounds of Martin’s Crossing.
“Me, too.” She opened her mouth to tell him more but she couldn’t. Not yet.
Maybe everyone had been right. What they’d had was nothing more than a teen crush. A mistake.
But when she looked at him, an insistent thought echoed in her mind. Was it?
BRENDA MINTON lives in the Ozarks with her husband, children, cats, dogs and strays. She is a pastor’s wife, Sunday school teacher, coffee addict and sleep-deprived. Not in that order. Her dream to be an author for Harlequin started somewhere in the pages of a romance novel about a young American woman stranded in a Spanish castle. Her dreams came true, and twenty-plus books later, she is an author hoping to inspire young girls to dream.
The Rancher’s
First Love
Brenda Minton
Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!
—Psalms 85:10
To great friends who keep me going. Yeah, you know your names. Love you all to the moon and back. And to Melissa Endlich, editor supreme. Your patience and wisdom are appreciated beyond belief.
Contents
The pediatric rehab wing of the Braswell, Texas, Doctor’s Hospital sounded like an out-of-control playground when Samantha Martin walked through the double doors. A little boy in a wheelchair zoomed her way, his face split in a wide grin.
“You’re here,” he announced.
“Of course I’m here, Parker. I work here.” She took the handles of the wheelchair and pushed him back down the hall. “Why are you racing around like a maniac?”
“The cowboys are coming today.”
“Cowboys?” Three days off and she no longer knew what was going on. She did know that after being outside in the June sunshine, the air-conditioning felt good and the kids all seemed to have spring fever. “Are we having a rodeo on the unit? Or football?”
She glanced at one of the other nurses. The woman shrugged as she headed into a room with a toddler on her hip. The Braswell hospital, just a short distance from Samantha’s home in Martin’s Crossing, was small but efficient. And the staff cared. It was a great place to begin her career as an RN.
At the moment she didn’t have a lot of time to reflect on her job, not with Parker, a dark-haired rascal, talking ninety