A Little Boyâs Hero
After losing his mother, Annie Ridgewayâs sweet six-year-old nephew thinks heâs an orphan. Turns out the father he never knew is bull rider Colt Holdenâthe boyâs hero. Before bringing them together as father and son, Annie has to make sure Colt is as good a man as he is a cowboy. When she arrives in Mule Hollow, she finds the handsome, honorable man guarding his burdened heart against caring for anyone or anything. Will a little boyâs devotion be the fighting chance they all need?
âHoney, let go of Mr. Holden,â Annie said to her nephew.
Bright eyes beamed back at her. âBut, Aunt Annie, Iâve been waiting for-evvv-er.â
She smiled and gently tugged the little boyâs arm away from Coltâs leg. Looking up, her gaze locked once more with Coltâs alarmed brown eyes.
Ever since sheâd found the letter that revealed who Leoâs daddy was, God had laid a heavy burden on her heart. It had taken her house burning down to make her figure out what she wanted to do. And that was to come find out what kind of man Colt was.
Sheâd been here all of ten minutes and things werenât looking so good. âIâm sorry about this. I guess I should introduce myself. Iâm Annie Ridgeway, and this is my nephew, Leo.â
âOur house burned down and my room is gone,â Leo said, staring up at Colt.
Coltâs brows crinkled in dismay. âY-your house burned down?â
She didnât miss the flash of compassion in his reaction.
So the man does have a heart buried in there somewhere.
DEBRA CLOPTON
First published in 2005, Debra Clopton is an award-winning, multi-published novelist who has won a Book-sellers Best Award, an Inspirational Readersâ Choice Award, a Golden Quill, the Cataromance Reviewersâ Choice Award, RT Book Reviews Book of the Year, and Harlequin.comâs Readersâ Choice Award. She was also a 2004 finalist in the prestigious RWA Golden Heart, a triple finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award and most recently a finalist in the 2011 Gayle Wilson Award for Excellence.
Married for 22 blessed years to her high school sweetheart, Wayne Clopton, Debra was widowed in 2003. Happily, in 2008, a couple of friends played match-maker and set her up on a blind date with Chuck Parks. Instantly hitting it off, Debra and Chuck were married in 2010. They live in the country with Chuckâs two high-school-age sons. Debra has two adult sons, a lovely daughter-in-law and beautiful granddaughterâlife is good! Her greatest awards are her family and spending time with them. You can reach Debra at P.O. Box 1125, Madisonville, TX 77864 or at debraclopton.com.
There is a season for everything,
and a time for every activity under heaven.
âEcclesiastes 3:1
This book is dedicated to my good friends
Melanie Trant and Joanna Harris... your hearts of gold and sassy attitudes made me fans from the first moments we met! As they say in Texas, God did âreal goodâ when He ran our paths together. Thanks for being my friends.
Chapter One
âWell, hi there, Colt Holden, bull rider extraordinaire. My goodness youâre breathtaking to watch on a bull.... Oh, and by the way, Iâm here to tell you that youâre a daddy!â
Annie Ridgeway recited the words in her head. Nope, that was certainly not the way to break the news. Though humor did lighten up a hard situation most times, in this case...not so much.
Annie and her sister, Jennifer, had always had very different ideas about life. Following rodeos around and being too friendly with the cowboys who rode bulls and broncs had been, in Annieâs view, a terrible thing. Then again, she and her sister had always been opposites. Jennifer thought Annie was a stick-in-the-mud, and she thought Jennifer was a...well, to put it bluntly, a lot too loose with her affections.
The two sisters had basically disagreed about almost everything right up until the day Jennifer died a year ago.
They had disagreed about everything, that is, but their love for Leo. On loving Leo they had agreed completely.
What was best for Leoâon that theyâd remained consistentâdisagreeing till the very end.
Annie started over. âMr. Holden, you donât know this, but you are the daddy of my six-year-old nephew, Leo. Surprise!â
Groaning, she bit her lip and nibbled on that straightforward approach. It was blunt. But it was the truth.
Six years. That was a long time to keep something as important as this hidden. Whether the rowdy cowboy had wanted to know or not, he should have been told.
That ended today.
Annie had decided today was the last day she was going to be responsible for such a significant piece of her nephewâs life. Having made this monumental decision hadnât made it easy for her. Oh, no. Sheâd be lying if she claimed that. It had been down-right hard; in fact, God had actually gotten a little rough with her to get her attention!