A Texas-Made Match. Noelle Marchand

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      Ellie frowned at Lettie. “I did? I thought I listed every decent, God-fearing man in town.”

      “That’s why.” The woman nodded as if the mysteries of the world had been explained to her, while eyeing her thoughtfully. “I don’t know why I never thought of it before.”

      “Thought of what?” Lorelei asked as everyone seemed to lean forward in anticipation.

      Lettie exchanged a meaningful look with Kate. At first, Kate’s brow furrowed, then slowly the illuminating light of intuition seemed to fill her eyes. “You mean...?”

      Lettie nodded.

      Kate’s eyes widened, then she stared at Ellie before sitting back in her chair. “Hmm.”

      Ellie exchanged a confused glance with Lorelei. “Who is it?”

      A slow smile lifted Kate’s lips. “This could be good. This could be very good.”

      * * *

      It was always good to get letters from home. Lawson glanced at Nathan Rutledge’s letter then turned to the one from the woman he called Mother. Reaching his room in the boarding house, he tugged off his dirty boots, threw his Stetson on his desk and fell back onto his bed, allowing himself to give in to exhaustion for just a moment before opening his mail.

      It had been a long, hard year filled with dangerous work and too many secrets. As a Texas Ranger, he’d rounded up more than his fair share of outlaws, and he tried to find some satisfaction in that. But this near-vagabond existence was too much like the life he’d left behind when he’d stumbled into Peppin, Texas, abandoned and alone with nowhere to go until the O’Brien family took him in. A few months later, when he was fourteen, Doc and Lettie Williams adopted him. They’d been the parents he’d always dreamed of. His life in Peppin had been so good that he’d nearly forgotten about the past. Here...he seemed to run across it every day in the smell of liquor, the haunted eyes of the saloon girls, the solitude and the need to be on constant alert.

      His commanding officer in the Rangers constantly told him not to lose the chip on his shoulder. “That’s what makes you stand out from the other Rangers. That’s what makes you tough. That’s what enables you to get your man. Never lose that chip.”

      Lawson wasn’t stupid enough to believe him. God was the one enabling him to catch those criminals. As for the chip on his shoulder—well, he reckoned he’d picked it up sometime between being abandoned and wandering into Peppin. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep the harshness of this life from wearing away at him, day by day.

      Time for a distraction. He tore open the letter from his parents first. It was a thick one so it ought to be good. He lifted the letter above his head just high enough for it to catch the sunlight shining through the window behind him. The room was so silent that he decided to read it out loud: “‘Dear Lawson, You really should come home.’”

      He sat up in concern and pulled the letter closer. “‘Now, don’t get all excited. Everyone here is fine. Your pa and I just miss you like crazy. We haven’t seen you in more than a year. You haven’t come home for any of the holidays. I know you work hard and what you do is important. This isn’t to make you feel guilty. This is just to tell you that we love you and we want to see you. Surely you can apply for a leave of absence. Just a few weeks of your company—that’s all I ask. Now, I’ve said my piece so I won’t mention it again.’”

      She kept her promise and went on to talk about some of the things Lawson had mentioned in his last letter, but he kept going back to that first paragraph. She was right. He hadn’t been home since he’d left a few weeks after his almost wedding to Lorelei.

      Pretty Lorelei Wilkins had been his sweetheart for years. Asking her to marry him had seemed like the next logical step. He had cared for her, had been determined to be a good husband to her—but before that could happen, she’d run out on their wedding, leaving him literally at the altar. When he’d chased after her, she’d told him the truth: that she didn’t think she loved him in the right way to be his wife...and that she didn’t think he loved her the right way, either.

      She was right. He’d been so hungry to have a family of his own, to make a life for himself that was completely different from the childhood he left behind, that he’d rushed into a wedding that came more from his head than his heart. He’d realized that she deserved more and maybe he did, too, so he did the honorable thing. He let her go. Then he did what his pride demanded, and left. He wasn’t there to see her marry Sean O’Brien, Lawson’s best friend and the man Lorelei had always secretly loved, though he was happy for her—happy for both of them—that they’d found the love they deserved.

      He knew that calling off the wedding had been the right decision, but it had still hurt. The wedding was supposed to prove that he’d overcome his past, that he was starting a new life and a new family. Instead, it seemed to prove the opposite and reminded him of all the rejection he’d experienced before. In truth, it was no wonder she’d walked away so easily. The people who mattered most often did.

      He read the letter from Sean’s brother-in-law, Nathan Rutledge, then let it fall to his chest as he stared at the ceiling. There must be some conspiracy to make him come home. Nathan wrote that his horse ranch had been doing so well that he’d decided to expand. He was offering Lawson the job of foreman just in case he’d grown tired of being a Ranger.

      “Lord, is this from You?”

      It was possible that God was bringing his time as a Ranger to a close. If so, Lawson planned to listen. God had been getting Lawson out of danger since he’d been a scraggly ten-year-old fending for himself on the streets, even if he hadn’t known Whom to thank for it right away. God had helped him find a fresh start once. Maybe it was time for another new beginning.

      Lawson Williams still had something to prove—that he was nothing like the parents who’d given him life then done their best to ruin it. He’d keep proving it to himself over and over again until he could finally believe it. He’d thought being a lawman would provide the opportunity to do that but perhaps the best way to prove it was by going home.

      * * *

      Ellie was trying her best to ignore the young man who’d been trailing after her for the past ten minutes. It wasn’t working. She turned and planted her hands on her hips as she eyed the dashing young blacksmith. “Rhett, if you insist on following me then you might as well make yourself useful.”

      She pointed to the signs for the booths resting on the church stairs. The Founder’s Day activities had already started but the signs needed extra time to dry. Rhett really must have been desperate because he picked them up and began helping her hand them out to the booth workers. “Ellie, I’m sure I’m on your list. You’ve got to tell me. Jeff Bridger says you told him about Maddie and they are already engaged.”

      She smiled as she handed Mrs. Redding the sign for her lemonade stand then moved on. “I know they’re engaged. I invited you to the party I’m having for them at the ranch. Don’t tell me you forgot about it already.”

      “I didn’t forget and you aren’t going to distract me.” His muscles bulged as he shifted the remaining signs to his shoulder, which somehow made his pleading look seem all the more pitiful. “I’ve just got to know who you think my match is.”

      She rolled her eyes. It had been two weeks since the fateful day she’d created the “Bachelor List.” The whole thing had turned into a СКАЧАТЬ