Home on the Ranch: Arizonaâwhere love burns brightly under the desert sun!
The Arizona ranch was supposed to be their homeâa place where Tandy Graham could start a new life with her young son. Instead, Tandy finds a community of hostile ranchers who expect her to fail. The only person they hate more? Her handsome new tenant, biologist Wyatt Hunt.
Tracking wildlife means Wyatt can never settle down. Still, he canât stop himself from becoming more involved with life on the ranch, and with Tandy. As his feelings for her grow stronger, Wyatt knows heâs playing a dangerous gameâone that ends with him choosing between the career he adores and the woman he loves.
His heated gaze never veered from her eyes...
âThis isnât smart,â Tandy murmured.
Wyatt continued to smile softly and pulled her onto his lap, where he kissed her again. A kiss that went deeper and lasted longer.
It lasted so long her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt. Once they broke apart, Tandy loosened a hand and ran a tentative finger over his lips. âThis could easily lead to more. But we have to be realistic.â
âHow so?â
âI have obligations. Namely a son and a ranch.â
âNeither of which Iâd do anything to hurt.â
She sighed. âYouâre a good man. I know youâd never mean to hurt me or Scotty. But we both know your job is going to take you away. I canât do a one-night stand. Or even one week or one month.â
Closing his eyes, Wyatt set his forehead against hers.
âI can promise you tonight.â
ROZ DENNY FOXâs first book was published by Mills & Boon in 1990. She writes for several Mills & Boon lines and her books are published worldwide in a number of languages. Rozâs warm home-and-family-focused love stories have been nominated for various industry awards, including the Romance Writers of Americaâs RITA® Award, the Holt Medallion, the Golden Quill and others. Roz has been a member of the Romance Writers of America since 1987 and is currently a member of Tucsonâs Saguaro Romance Writers, where she has received the Barbara Award for outstanding chapter service. In 2013 Roz received her fifty-book pin from Mills & Boon. Readers can contact her on Facebook, at [email protected], or visit her website at www.korynna.com/rozfox.
Chapter One
âMs. Graham, youâre the reason the Aravaipa Cattle and Sheep Ranchers Association called this emergency meeting.â Preston Hicks sauntered down the grange hall aisle and loomed over where Tandy sat with an arm around her son, Scotty. Heâd fallen asleep but came sharply awake at the manâs loud verbal attack.
Tandy and Scotty had arrived late and slipped into empty seats in the back row. Stymied as to why she was being singled out, she glanced surreptitiously around, but saw only stern ranchers she probably once knew but hadnât seen in a dozen years.
âWhatâs your problem? Iâve only operated Spiritridge Ranch a couple of months. I havenât fully rebuilt a herd.â Recognizing her sleepy son probably shouldnât be here, she gathered him closer. He wouldnât have come except that as a newly single mom, sheâd had no one to leave him with. And the message left on her answering machine had indicated this meeting was important.
Hicks, her closest neighbor and the president of the association, glared down at her from his lofty height and hooked his thumbs over a belt circling his portly belly. âI offered to buy your fatherâs ranch. Since itâs doubtful you know a thing about raising cattle, all of us expect sooner or later youâll fail. It wouldâve been smarter if youâd stayed in the army and let me have the ranch.â
Garnering murmurs of agreement in the room, the man hitched his pants higher.
âI beg your pardon! I grew up here,â Tandy asserted.
âYeah, well, I donât recall you helped your pa work cattle.â
âBecause I was busy with schoolwork and sports.â
He wagged a beefy finger in her face. âThe past is over. What everyone here agrees with is that you canât rent a casita to that damned wolf man. We know Curt, rest his soul, had the poor judgment to let Game and Fish come into our Eastern Arizona sector to do their dirty work after old-timers had rid the area of predators. No one wanted to hound Curt, him being so sick and all. Youâre a different story. Youâre a Johnny-come-lately who has no business messing in here at all.â
âYou mean a Janie-come-lately,â called an equally paunchy man, slapping a worn ten-gallon hat on his knee. His comment caused the room full of men to erupt in snickers while Tandy pondered how little time sheâd had as a kid to help her dad with the ranch. But sheâd loved it. After all, it had been her home.