Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range by Danica Favorite (summer beach reads txt) 📕

girl, she wasn’t sure she could remember a time when Nugget wasn’t hers.

“You know fighting is wrong,” Joseph told Daniel sternly.

“So’s what he said about my sister.”

Though Annabelle knew she needed to remain quiet and let Joseph do the parenting, part of her wanted to cheer for the fact that the boy who once refused to even look at Nugget, let alone call her sister, was now fighting for the little girl’s honor.

“The other boy started it,” chorused Evelyn, Helen and Bess.

Annabelle looked down at Nugget. “That so?”

Nugget shrugged. Apparently, she wasn’t going to risk her newfound solidarity with her siblings.

Joseph escorted Daniel to where they were waiting, and Annabelle noticed her father walking the other boy down the street. Probably to talk to his parents.

The other three girls trudged behind, their heads low, as though they thought the other boy had Daniel’s beating coming. Annabelle sighed. Raising Joseph’s siblings was not for the faint of heart. But watching them heal from the pain of their rough past and come to love one another was worth it.

Joseph came along Annabelle’s other side and slipped his hand in hers. “Never a dull moment, is it?”

“Of course not.” Until she’d found herself with a houseful again, she hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed having the warm bodies, the laughter and even the fights to add color to her life. Some days, she still missed her siblings, especially Susannah, and most days, she desperately missed her mother. For only a mother could advise her on how to handle this rambunctious crew.

A carriage was parked in front of their house.

“Caitlin!” Nugget pulled away from Annabelle’s hand and dashed in the direction of the carriage, her siblings following suit.

Annabelle looked over at Joseph. “I didn’t know Gertie was coming down today. I thought they were waiting until Saturday.”

“I thought you’d like having her sooner.” A knowing look filled his face. “You’ve been overly tired lately, and she told me to send for her if you needed help.”

No, Annabelle didn’t have a mother to advise her on such things. But she had Gertie, who loved her like one. Even though Gertie would never replace her mother, and there were times when having Gertie around increased the ache of her mother’s absence, mostly, Annabelle didn’t know what she’d do without the other woman.

“Daniel, what have you done to your eye?” Gertie’s exclamation told Annabelle that Gertie probably had plenty of experience dealing with her own sons’ fights. Later, the other woman could help her figure out how to handle this latest development.

Annabelle turned to Joseph and kissed him softly. “Thank you. You always seem to know just what I need.”

He kissed her back, then grinned. “Or maybe I want to get a little time alone with you myself. Won’t be much longer until we’ve also got a baby to manage, so I figured I’d best take advantage while I still can.”

This time, Annabelle didn’t stop herself from throwing her arms around him. Well, as best as she could fit, anyway. She was, after all, expecting a baby. And even though some ladies in town said it simply wasn’t done when one was in such a delicate condition, she kissed her husband until they were both breathless. Let everyone say what they will. Annabelle Lassiter Stone had opened her heart to love, and now that she’d found it, she wasn’t about to let anyone tell her not to show it.

Family on the Range

Jessica Nelson

Jessica Nelson believes romance happens every day and thinks the greatest, most intense romance comes from a God who woos people to Himself with passionate tenderness. When Jessica is not chasing her three beautiful, wild little boys around the living room, she can be found staring into space as she plots her next story, daydreams about raspberry mochas or plans chocolate for dinner.

Books by Jessica Nelson

Love Inspired Historical

Love on the Range

Family on the Range

The Matchmaker’s Match

A Hasty Betrothal

The Unconventional Governess

Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:

I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him,

and honour him.

—Psalms 91:15

Dedicated to my sister Josephine, who has

Mary’s heart. And to my niece Jayla, who is Josie.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter One

June 1920

Oregon

“Bag the body and don’t forget to ink his prints.” Special Agent Lou Riley moved away from the man who had met his demise in the bowels of an illegal liquor operation. He slipped Wrigley’s peppermint gum into his mouth and gnawed on it as he thought through his circumstances.

This dead witness meant more time on assignment trying to track down the one who’d hired the foreign bootlegger to do his dirty work.

Prohibition in Oregon wasn’t a thing to be trifled with. After a decade of chasing murderers, traitors and thieves in his job as special agent for the Bureau of Investigation, Lou guessed helping the local police track speakeasies and distilleries served him well enough.

Better than the more dangerous spying he’d done until this past year.

He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the stress of a hard day’s work combined with personal pressures. Day before last he’d left his secluded ranch to tackle this assignment. His housekeeper, Mary, had everything under control at home, but he couldn’t shake his unease. Over a year ago his niece and his best friend, Trevor, had married, and ever since he’d been thinking about the past. About people long gone. And lately, when he saw Mary, a strange tension filled him, which was odd because they’d always had an easygoing rapport in the twelve years she’d been his employee.

Not that his job ever kept him home with her for long.

Grimacing at the kink in his left shoulder, he wheeled around and left the dim