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When a divorce from her husband of twenty-five years leaves Kate McClure financially destitute and alienated from her two adult children, she and her aging mother Belle return to Paradise Ranch, the homestead they left when Kate was a child. In this quiet spot she can begin to put her shattered life back together, or so she thinks. She has scarcely set foot in the dilapidated old ranch house when her next-door neighbor, handsome bachelor Hank Sinclair, arrives to announce that he has a prior claim on Paradise. Against her better judgment Kate enters into a business deal with Hank and finds she is falling in love with him despite his frank admission that he wants no lasting relationship. EXCERPT "So this is Paradise." Kate McClure shaded her eyes as she gazed across the rolling, sparsely wooded countryside. "Who named this place?" Belle Sullivan smiled, the dimples in her cheeks deepening. "Your Daddy did. He had just come home from Vietnam. It looked like paradise to him." "What did you think about this place, Mamma, the first time you saw it?" A pained expression crossed Belle's face. "It looked more like that other place to me. But Daddy loved it here, and I loved Daddy. Then Daddy left me, and I couldn't run a ranch by myself, so I took you, and moved to town." Kate sat on the grassy slope. "Daddy didn't leave you, he died. There's a difference." "Not much." Belle dropped down beside her daughter. "The feelings are the same. I felt just as deserted and betrayed when Daddy died as you did when Jim divorced you and married another woman. It took a long time for me to get over Daddy." Kate nodded. "I know." "How would you know?" Belle asked. "You're not over Jim yet. Sometimes I wonder if you ever will be." Kate changed the subject. "Why didn't you sell this place?" "As long as I had Paradise Ranch, I had a part of Daddy. The place wasn't a total loss. Marcus Sinclair, who owns the big spread next door, leased the land. What he paid me took care of the taxes." Belle sighed. "So I kept my paradise." Kate's hand flew to grasp her mother's arm. "It's not leased to Mr. Sinclair now is it?" "No. He didn't renew his lease this year. I don't know why." "Maybe for once, fate was kind to us, Mamma. If we didn't have this place, I would be living with Michael and his new wife, and you would be in Cedars Retirement Home." "I guess you know Michael thinks you're crazy and I'm senile, and we won't last thirty days out here." Kate's fine features set in determined lines. She felt the sting of useless frustration. "My son has a lot to learn about his mother, and his grandmother." "He has a point," Belle said. "It sounds a little crazy for a forty-six-year old woman and her sixty-five year old mamma to decide to become ranchers when neither of us knows anything at all about the cattle business." "Don't say that." A thread of apprehension unraveled inside Kate. Maybe this was a foolish venture. She pushed that thought from her mind. "You lived here with Daddy all those years ago. You must have learned something." She pressed her fingers to her temples. "I may get seasick. This grass billows like an ocean." "You'll get used to it," Belle said. "In time you may even learn to like it." Kate doubted that. "I'll be satisfied if I can learn to endure it. Because, like it or not Mamma, this is home for us now." E-mail a friend about this item. Join the Desert Breeze Publishing EXCLUSIVE BOOK CLUB!
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