Trusting A Cowboy
Rancher Austin Blackwell knows a wounded creature when he sees one. Although Annalisa Keller wonât reveal how she ended up stranded in Whisper Falls, his conscience refuses to let her leave. The little Ozarks town could be the perfect place for her to start overâjust as it was for him. Trying to keep his own past hidden, Austin finds himself falling for the vulnerable beauty with too many secrets. Before long, Annalisaâs warmth and love of life work their way into Austinâs heart...and promise never to leave.
âAre you okay?â The question he always asked, the one that melted her anxiety.
âIâm fine. Why?â But she knew, of course.
âI upset you.â
She glanced around the glade, a pristine wilderness broken only by the train tracks.
âOnly for a moment.â
He eased an arm around her shoulders, let it lie there lightly as if gauging her acceptance. âYouâre safe with me.â
âI know.â And she did. In her head she knew. In her heart she knew. But bad experiences died hard.
When she didnât pull away, Austin drew her close to his side and she rested there, letting tension drain away. Gently he opened her fingers and touched the arrowhead, a gray gleam on her palm. âQuite a find. Rare and special. There arenât many left.â
Like him. A rare and special find. A man to trust.
She was terrified of loving again, of taking a chance. If Austin knew everything about her past, would he reject her, as broken as she was?
LINDA GOODNIGHT
Winner of a RITA® Award for excellence in inspirational fiction, Linda Goodnight has also won a Booksellersâ Best Award, an ACFW Book of the Year award and a Reviewersâ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews. Linda has appeared on the Christian bestseller list and her romance novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Active in orphan ministry, this former nurse and teacher enjoys writing fiction that carries a message of hope and light in a sometimes dark world. She and her husband, Gene, live in Oklahoma. Readers can write to her at [email protected] or c/o Love Inspired Books, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279.
Two are better than one....
If one falls down, the other can help him up. But it is bad for the person who is alone and falls, because no one is there to help.
âEcclesiastes 4:9, 10
Prologue
Rumor says that if a prayer is murmured beneath Whisper Falls, God will hear and answer. Some folks think itâs superstitious nonsense. Some think itâs a clever ploy to attract tourists. Others believe that God works in mysterious ways, and prayers, no matter where whispered, are always heard.
Chapter One
Left hand riding lightly on his thigh, Austin Blackwell held the reins with the other and picked his way through the thick woods above Whisper Falls, Arkansas. If one more calf strayed into this no-manâs land between his ranch and the cascading waterfall, he was putting up another fence. A really tall one. Barbed wire. Electrified. Let the folks of the small Ozark town whine and bellow that he was ruining the ambience or whatever they called the pristine beauty of these deep woods. They just didnât want to lose any tourist money. Well, he didnât want to lose any cattle money, either. So they were on even playing field. Heâd never wanted to open the waterfall to tourism in the first place.
Now, every yahoo with an itch to climb down the rock wall cliff and duck behind the curtain of silvery water traipsed all over his property just to mutter a prayer or two. Wishful thinking or pure silliness. Heâd made the trek a few times himself and he could guarantee prayers whispered there or anywhere else for that matter were a waste of good breath.
Something moved through the dense trees at his left and Austin pulled the horse to a stop. Cisco flicked his ears toward the movement, alert and ready to break after the maverick at the flinch of his masterâs knee.
âEasy,â Austin murmured, patting the sleek brown neck while he scoped the woods, waiting for a sight or sound. Above him a squirrel chattered, getting ready for winter. Autumn leaves in reds and golds swirled down from the branches. Sunlight dappled between the trees, although the temperature was cool enough that Austinâs jacket felt good.
He pressed his white Stetson tighter and urged the bay onward in the direction of the falls, the direction from which the movement had come. Might be the maverick.
âCoyote, probably.â But black bear and cougar werenât out of the question. He tapped the rifle holster, confident he could handle anything he encountered in the woods. Outside the ranch was a different matter.
The roar of the falls increased as he rode closer. Something moved again and he twisted in the saddle to see the stray heifer break from the opposite direction. Cisco responded with the training of a good cutting horse. Austin grappled for the lariat rope as the calf split to the right and crashed through the woods to disappear down a draw.