The Cowboy's Ready-Made Family
The Cowboy ArrangementSusanne Collins has her hands full raising her four orphaned nieces and nephews and managing the family farm. So when her cowboy neighbor proposes he plant her crops in exchange for keeping his wild horses in her corrals, Susanne hesitantly takes the deal. Soon her reluctance to accept help ebbs, and she wonders if Tanner Harding will he prove to be the strong, solid man she’s been hoping for…Half-Native American Tanner has always been adrift in a white man’s world. Yet the beautiful stand-in mother and her ready-made family give him a sense of belonging for the very first time. But can he convince Susanne to take a chance and welcome him not just into her home but also into her heart?
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The Cowboy Arrangement
Susanne Collins has her hands full raising her four orphaned nieces and nephews and managing the family farm. So when her cowboy neighbor proposes he plant her crops in exchange for keeping his wild horses in her corrals, Susanne hesitantly takes the deal. Soon her reluctance to accept help ebbs, and she wonders if Tanner Harding will he prove to be the strong, solid man sheâs been hoping for...
HalfâNative American Tanner has always been adrift in a white manâs world. Yet the beautiful stand-in mother and her ready-made family give him a sense of belonging for the very first time. But can he convince Susanne to take a chance and welcome him not just into her home but also into her heart?
Montana Cowboys: These brothers live and love by the code of the West
âI agree to your plan. With a few conditions.â
Tanner stiffened, guarding his heart against the words he expected. Stay away from the children. Donât forget youâre a half-breed.
âThe children must be treated kindly at all times. And I donât want them getting hurt because of the horses.â
Nothing about his heritage? Nothing at all?
âMaâam, there is no need for such conditions. I would never be unkind to a child. Or an adult. Or an animal. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. And I would never put anyone in danger. For any reason.â
âThen we have a deal.â Susanne held her hand out.
He took it before she remembered he was a half-breed, and marveled at her firm grip despite the smallness of her hand.
Inside his heart, buried deep, pressed down hard beneath a world of caution, there bubbled to the surface a desire to protect.
The one thing he meant to protect was his heart. No one, especially a fragile blonde woman, would be allowed near it.
âWe have a deal,â he said.
Their agreement would certainly solve two problems. But he wondered if it would create a whole lot more to take their place.
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 childrenâfour 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.
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
âZephaniah 3:17
Dedicated to the memory of my grandson, Julien Yake, who passed away July 2015 at age 19; and to his mother, who will forever mourn him.
Contents
Spring 1899
Near Granite Creek, Montana
The skin on the back of Tanner Hardingâs neck tingled. Somethingâor someoneâwatched him.
He slowly straightened from leaning against the fence but kept his eyes on the horses corralled behind the barricade of intertwined thick branches. He didnât want to alert whatever rustled behind him that he was aware of its presence. He crossed his arms as if his sole purpose was admiring the wild mares heâd captured, but one hand slipped down to the handle of the knife he carried on his belt. Whether it be man or beast, Tanner didnât intend it to succeed in attacking him.
A slight sound indicated the stalker had moved toward Tannerâs right, to the little grove of trees. A bear? It was too quiet and it didnât smell. A cougar? A big cat would be up the tree waiting for a chance to pounce. A man? That seemed most likely.
He tensed his muscles, fixed in his thoughts where to strike, and sprang around in a single movement that most men couldnât imitate. But then most men didnât have Lakota blood mixed with white in their veins.
His right arm came up. The steel blade of his knife flashed as he confrontedâ
A boy? A little boy, with tousled blond hair and blue eyes as wide as moons, who shrank back as far as the tree trunk allowed.
âYou gonna kill me?â he squeaked.
Tanner slid the knife back into its sheath as the tension drained from his body. âYouâre too little to be any danger to me.â
The boy drew himself up to the fullest of his barely three feet. âI ainât too little.â He crossed his arms and thumped them to his chest. âIâm five.â
âUh-huh.â Tanner perched one foot on the nearby fallen tree and leaned over his leg. âYou got a name?â
âRobbie.â
âIs there a last name goes with that, Robbie?â
âRobbie Collins.â
He knew the family. They lived down the valley a bit, scratching out a living on a farm. The mother had died a year or more ago, the father, a few months past. Who was in charge of this child and the other three children in the family? They werenât doing much of a job for this youngster to be a few miles from home.
