Second Chance Rancher. Brenda Minton
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Her Texas Homecoming
At eighteen, Lucy Palermo couldn’t wait to join the army and leave Bluebonnet Springs behind. Ten years later, she’s come home to fix her family’s falling-down ranch and repair the bond with her troubled siblings. Neighboring rancher Dane Scott is even more handsome—and distracting—than she remembers. The single dad’s priority is making a stable life for his daughter. He needs someone who’ll stay—and straight-talking Lucy doesn’t seem to need anyone. But beneath that tough exterior is a loving, softhearted woman. A woman Dane can’t help wanting, if he can show her that the town she once fled is the perfect place to start over—together.
“I don’t need you there to hold my hand.”
He held up both hands. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Friend.”
“Neighbor,” she mumbled as she walked away.
Dane followed Lucy inside. He shouldn’t have. He should have gotten back to work. Instead he walked behind her, ignoring the tense set of her shoulders and the fact that she didn’t want him along for this journey.
“Stop thinking about me.” She shot the comment over her shoulder as she walked through the kitchen. “I’m not a project. I don’t need to be fixed. Go do whatever good deed you were going to do here today.”
“I’m replacing light fixtures and repairing some sockets. You’re not on my to-do list.”
He couldn’t stop himself, though. For the last few years he had focused all his energy on the ranch and his daughter.
The last thing he wanted was to get caught up in Lucy’s messy life. But here he was, intrigued and unable to walk away.
Lucy Palermo is a character I couldn’t leave behind. She’s someone we might want to have as a friend, but we know that she wouldn’t give that friendship easily.
There are people in our lives who are very much like Lucy. They appear strong, distant, or cool. If we take the time to get to know them we will find that they hide their pain beneath that cool facade.
Every day we pass people on the street, see them in the grocery store, ignore them in the hallways at school and we think we know them. We judge what we see on the outside. The popular girl in school must have it all. The boy walking by himself in worn jeans and a stained T-shirt, we pass on by without a greeting. The woman at the store who never smiles when we say hello, she must be unfriendly.
They all have stories. And often, they just need a friend. Today, take time and be the person who reaches out.
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 dream came true, and twenty-plus books later, she is an author hoping to inspire young girls to dream.
Second Chance Rancher
Brenda Minton
MILLS & BOON
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For God has not given us a spirit of fear and
timidity, but of power, love and self discipline.
—2 Timothy 1:7
To my family for the love and encouragement
they’ve given me over the years.
To Melissa, for the opportunity to
continue writing the books I love.
And Giselle, for all her work in this process.
Thank you both for keeping me on track.
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