This book is dedicated to my beautiful daughter, Angela DeNosky Blumenstock.

       Thank you for the research help and for being the sweetest daughter a mother could ever ask for.

One

      Nate Rafferty couldn’t help but smile as he looked around the big, open area in one of his newly constructed barns. From the minute he’d mentioned having a party to celebrate his buying and renovating the Twin Oaks Ranch, his brothers’ wives had decided it needed to be a theme party. He’d been fine with that and told his sisters-in-law they were in charge of making it happen.

      He’d even left the decision up to the women on what the theme would be, and they had outdone themselves, turning what was going to be his hay barn into a kid-friendly haunted house and full-on Halloween party. The monsters, scarecrows and ghosts were cute rather than scary, and his niece and nephews were going to love all the pumpkins, happy jack-o’-lanterns and garlands of colorful fall leaves that had been hung around the dance floor and bandstand.

      Trying to decide if he wanted to go as the Lone Ranger or John Wayne, Nate walked out of the barn and started across the ranch yard toward the house. He’d gone only a few feet when he stopped dead in his tracks. A petite blond-haired woman was just getting out of the gray compact SUV she’d parked close to the garage.

      How in the name of Sam Hill had she found him? And why?

      He’d purposely avoided mentioning anything about buying the Twin Oaks Ranch to Jessica Farrell. He’d planned to wait until he finished renovating it, so he could surprise her and invite her to spend a weekend with him. Of course, the last time he’d seen her had been about four and a half months back—when she had still been speaking to him.

      Not that he’d been all that worried about it. He had never had a problem charming his way back into her good graces and he had no reason to believe he couldn’t do so again, even though she’d been pretty determined that their on-again, off-again relationship was permanently off.

      It had been that way between them for the past couple of years and whenever it seemed like things were getting a little too serious, he always found a reason to break things off between them. But the last time she’d told him not to bother calling her again and to forget where she lived.

      Of course, it wasn’t the first time she’d told him to lose her phone number. They went through something similar about every three or four months. He’d give her time to simmer down, call and sweet-talk her into seeing him again. Then, after spending several weeks of being real cozy with her, he could feel himself start to get in a little deeper than he intended. That’s when he’d cut and run.

      He knew it wasn’t fair to Jessie. She was a wonderful woman and deserved better than the likes of him. But where she was concerned, he didn’t seem to have a choice. He simply couldn’t stay away from her.

      But this was the first time she’d sought him out and he couldn’t for the