A Daddy For Christmas

Cowboy to the Rescue

Summoned by two little girls to help their mother in distress, Blue Lyons rushes to rescue widow Clara Weston. When the cowboy discovers the fatherless family has nowhere to go, he offers them food and shelter. But widower Blue won’t get too close to the needy trio. He’s lost too many people he’s cared for, and he isn’t about to set himself up for loss again.

For Clara, any dangers she may face on the frontier are preferable to staying with her controlling father. Although she’s determined to keep her independence, Blue’s kindness and tenderness are hard to resist. Can two pint-size matchmakers help Clara and Blue open their guarded hearts in time for Christmas?

“I’d love to go to church with you.”

Blue blinked as if surprised at her agreement. “Really?”

She laughed, although she felt somewhat annoyed. “Why did you ask if you expected me to refuse?”

“Because I’m worried. I don’t want to see anything happen to you or the girls.”

Her annoyance fled, replaced with gratitude for his concern. “Blue, you’re a good man.”

She watched, surprised, as he turned pink beneath his tan. She chuckled. “Not used to hearing compliments?”

He merely shrugged.

Blue seemed to truly care about her safety and that of the girls. Like she’d said, he was a good man. He should really remarry. He has so much to offer. He—

Not knowing where those thoughts came from, she slammed the door on them right quick.

If Blue Lyons chose to marry or otherwise, it was none of her concern. She had her own issues to worry about. There was no room in her life for wondering if Blue would ever consider taking another wife.

So why couldn’t she stop wondering what it would be like to be married to a man who treated her like an equal and yet showed tenderness and concern?

LINDA FORD lives on a ranch in Alberta, Canada, near enough to the Rocky Mountains that she can enjoy them on a daily basis. She and her husband raised fourteen children—four homemade, ten adopted. She currently shares her home and life with her husband, a grown son, a live-in paraplegic client and a continual (and welcome) stream of kids, kids-in-law, grandkids, and assorted friends and relatives.

A Daddy for Christmas

Linda Ford

www.millsandboon.co.uk

But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8

Christmas is a special time made more special by sharing it with those I love.

This book is dedicated to you. Thank you for filling the day and my life with such joy.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Edendale, Alberta, Canada December 1882

The church door clattered open. A cold breeze skittered across the floor as two little girls rushed into the room from beyond the partition of raw wood that separated the entryway from the main part of the partially finished church. They skidded to a halt, staring at him with wide eyes.

The peace twenty-eight-year-old Blue Lyons sought so desperately shattered into fragments as tiny and elusive as the sawdust at his feet.

“We need help,” the bigger girl said, an unfamiliar child with hair the color of caramel candy sticks and heavily lashed eyes as dark as night.

“Something’s wrong with Mama,” the second girl said. This one had sunny-blond hair and blue eyes.

At the fear he saw in their expressions, Blue felt cracks begin to form in the barrier he’d erected around his emotions. Then he tightened his self-control. Part of the reason he’d asked to work here, making pews for the new church in town, was to avoid contact with children. Back at Eden Valley Ranch he was surrounded with them—smiling, laughing, chasing, playing, happy children continually threatening the fortifications he’d built around his memories.

But these two little girls were alone and frightened. “Whoa. Slow down. Where’s your mama, and what does she need?”

The pair gasped for air, then closed the distance to his side, apparently unafraid of him as a stranger. Or were they so concerned about their mama they would seek help from anyone?

The girls caught his hands, one on each side, and tugged at him. He let them drag him forward as the memory of other occasions burst from the locked vault of his mind. Two other children—a boy and a girl—pulling on his hands, eager to show him something. Sometimes it was a new batch of kittens. Sometimes a flower peeking through the snow. Once they’d discovered a baby rabbit hidden in some grass, and the three of them had hunkered down to watch it.

The two girls who had burst into his serenity hurried him toward the door. Then, suddenly, one of them halted.

“Stop. You need your coat. It’s too cold to go out without it.” The older one had suddenly grown motherly and concerned. She spied the coat hanging from a nail and dropped his hand to point at it. “Best put it on.”