THIS MIRACLEâS A MYSTERY
When newborn twins mysteriously appear on Cole McCulloughâs doorstep, everyone at the Healing Ranch, including Cole, starts to think...could they be his? Why else would someone leave them there? Cole knows there must be another explanation. Unless...
The only woman that Coleâs been that close to is Stacy Roweâthe one he cared for deeply, and deeply regrets losing. But Stacy hasnât been in Forever inâ¦forever. Eight months, to be exact. And while the math adds up, nothing else does! She would never abandon two little babies that wayâsheâs said as much. But she does seem awfully keen to help him care for them. And the closer their odd little family grows, the more Cole has to wonder...
Cole shook his head. âAnd to think I actually thought I missed you.â
âYeah,â she retorted. âI was just thinking the same thing.â
He blew out a breath, telling himself it wouldnât do either one of themâor more important, the twinsâany good to blow up like this right here in front of the sheriffâs office. It was just that he had forgotten just how easily Stacy could set him off. And half the timeâlike nowâshe did it without warning. It was like being caught in a blitzkrieg.
âStacy,â he said, growing stern, âlet me take the basket in. Itâs heavy.â
âItâs not,â she argued. Except that it really was. And the babies were moving. With a sigh, she relented. âItâs awkward.â
âAll the more reason for me to take it,â Cole told her. For a few brief seconds, she debated continuing to argue the point with him.
But her arms were beginning to really ache. So, in the end, she said, âFine, you can carry them inâbut only because Iâm thinking of the babies.â
Prologue
He was getting too old for this.
A hundred years ago, at twenty-six he would not just have been married but would have had at least three, maybe four, kids. He would have been settled into his life, doing what he could to provide for his wife and children.
Instead, here he was, twenty-six years old and still trying to figure out just what his life would eventually be.
Part of the reason for his surly mood, Cole McCullough thought as he sat up and dragged his hand through his unruly, shaggy, dark blond hair, was that he was spending two nights a week with his six-foot-two body crammed into a bunk bed. Sometimes three nights. And that was because twoâsometimes threeâdays a week, he worked at the Healing Ranch. The Healing Ranch was a horse ranch run by Jackson and Garrett White Eagle, two of his friends. Their sole focus was to take in and help troubled boys, building up their feelings of self-worth by having them take care of and work with horses.
All in all, it was a noble callingâfor the White Eagle brothers. Not that he didnât believe in it. He did. But the Healing Ranch was their calling, their mark in the world.
Just like the family ranch was really Connorâs.
Oh, they had all put in their time, he and Cody and Cassidy, but the ranch, left to all of them when their father died, was really Connorâs baby. The rest of them had worked on it to show their gratitude to Connor. When their father had died so suddenly, Connor gave up his dream of going to college and became their guardian so that he, Cody and Cassidy wouldnât suddenly find themselves being swallowed up by the countyâs social services.
He knew that going to college had meant a lot to Connor, but his big brother never hesitated to give it up. For them.
After getting dressed, Cole paused to throw some water on his face in the tiny bathroom just off the equally tiny bedroom. The area had been added onto the main bunkhouse to give him some semblance of privacy. The main bunkhouse was where the boys stayed when their familiesâand in some cases, social servicesâsent them to the ranch. The Healing Ranch was a last-ditch effort to straighten them out. Without the ranch, the next stop would have been juvieâand most likely jail.
Initially, there had been only two boys on the ranch. And then there were four. And, as word of the ranchâs success spread, there were more. A lot more. Which was why he had wound up working here part-time.
The rest of the time, he was on the ranch, helping Connor.
Always helping.