His Heart for the Trusting
HIS HEART FOR THE TRUSTING
by
Lisa Mondello
KINDLE EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Lisa Mondello
His Heart for the Trusting
Copyright © 2002 by Lisa Mondello
First Edition published 2002 by Avalon Books
Second Edition published 2012
License Notes
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* * * * *
“Truly a joy to read.”
- Susan Mobley
Her Heart for the Asking - 4 STARS Romantic Times
“The Marriage Contract is a very entertaining read.”
-
Sunnye Tiedemann
The Marriage Contract – 4 STARS Romantic Times
“Cradle of Secrets, a story shrouded in mystery, darkness
and confusion, is quite difficult to resist…captivating, and often quite
emotional.”
– Robin Taylor
Cradle of Secrets – 4 STARS Romantic Times
“Lisa Mondello's Her Only Protector is an extremely
stimulating romance and suspense story.”
– Robin Taylor
Her Only Protector – 4.5 STARS Romantic Times
“Mondello's action-packed story has a nice developing
romance.”
– Susan Mobley
Yuletide Protector – 4 STARS Romantic Times
* * * * *
His Heart for the Trusting
– Book 2 of Texas Hearts
Ever since
Mitch Broader set foot in Texas, he dreamed of owning his own ranch. Now that
he’s bought a share in the Double T Ranch, he’s one step closer to the dream.
Then his past greets him in the form of a baby basket, complete with infant and
birth certificate naming him as the father. He can’t change diapers and work
toward his dream at the same time.
When Sara
Lightfoot, “Miss Hollywood” in Mitch’s eyes, rescues him with her particular
knack for handling his precocious son, he hires her on the spot as a temporary
nanny. No matter how much Sara’s dark eyes and warm heart make this bachelor
think of settling down and making their arrangement permanent, she’s made it
perfectly clear she has other plans that don’t include him or his dreams.
Sara Lightfoot
never thought she’d return to her home on the reservation. Now she plans to
reclaim the life she left by going back to the reservation as a Native American
storyteller, teaching the Apache children stories of their culture. She didn’t
expect Mitch Broader’s sexy smile or job offer as a live-in nanny to derail
those plans. After all she’s been through to come home, can she open up her
heart once again to love?
* * * * *
EBooks
available by Lisa Mondello
All I Want for Christmas is You ##
The Knight and Maggie’s Baby##
Cradle of Secrets – Harlequin Love Inspired
Suspense**
Her Only Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired
Suspense**
Yuletide Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired
Suspense
Fresh-Start Family – Harlequin Love Inspired
Romance
In a Doctor’s Arms – Harlequin Love Inspired
Romance
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Fate with a Helping
Hand (Massachusetts)
Series
+ +
Texas Hearts
Series
**
Cradle
Series
* * * * *
This book is dedicated to Maria, Tina, Linda and Torry.
Much love and hugs!
Your sister, Lisa
* * * * *
HIS HEART FOR THE TRUSTING
Chapter One
What a
homecoming, Sara. First day back in Texas in years and you crash the town
social.
Sara Lightfoot
chuckled at the nervous energy racing through her veins. She never thought
coming home would be easy, but she certainly hadn't expected this much anxiety.
When she had
first received Mandy's letter telling her she'd come back to Texas, she'd
gotten the bug to come home. Safety in numbers, Mandy had said. No one will
expect it.
Yeah, right!
She hadn't always done the unexpected, but this time she was sure her arrival
would cause enough of a stir that heads were going to turn and a flurry of
whispers were going to race across the lawn like a brush fire on a dry Texas
day.
It wasn't that
big a deal and she didn't relish the kind of attention that was sure to come
her way. She was coming home to a place she should have never left in the
first place. But when all was said and done, it had taken the leaving to
appreciate the home she had fled on the Apache reservation she'd grown up on.
As she drove
down the endless highway toward Steerage Rock, Sara smiled to herself. She
hadn't fled this time. This time she chose to leave LA and shed a little piece
of herself in the process. She'd given up her old life and taken back her
family name. That was the first of many steps she hoped would bring her closer
to home.
Her divorce to
Dave was now final. Another huge step. Going home to reclaim a life she threw
away years before like a worn out dress was the next step. She only hoped that
old life would want her back as much as she wanted to be back.
Mandy had
insisted it would and Sara clung to that hope.
Main Street
looked exactly as it had the day she and Dave had walked into the Justice of
the Peace's office downtown and married. As she drove passed City Hall, she
took in the cold and lonely feeling that swept through her and pushed it
aside. She hadn't thought it lonely the day of her marriage. After all, she
had Dave. What more could she need? He was going to make all her childhood
dreams come true. Funny how dreams turn...
She heaved a
heavy sigh as she reached the intersection that led to the main road leading to
The Double T Ranch. Anticipation raced through her. Her hands started to
tremble. Thank goodness, Mandy had gone against her wishes and come to LA for
a spontaneous visit. If she hadn't, Lord knows she’d still be caught in the
same prison Dave had neatly built for her.
Sara hit her
directional and took a left hand turn, anticipation of seeing family for the
first time in almost nine years and fear of their reaction filling her at the
same time.
As she sped
past the red brick elementary school, she pulled over, parked the car on the
grass near a chain-link fence, and then felt the whoosh of a speeding car drive
past her on the opposite side of the road. Someone was in a hurry to get out
of town, she thought. She'd had enough of that in LA, where it seemed everyone
was in a hurry. Out here, she'd have time. Time to heal her wounds and build
back a life she'd thrown away.
A cluster of
children played in the park and she had to smile. She'd always loved the
children. And they had always loved her stories. After volunteering at a
daycare in LA sharing her Native American heritage with the children through
stories, she decided it was time to reconnect with a piece of her that had been
missing. Sure, there were elementary schools and parks in LA and all over the
world. She could have gone anywhere. But this...this was home.
* * *
A patch of open
Texas sky stretched long and wide above the Double T Ranch. Mitch Broader
adjusted his straw hat and took a moment to enjoy the view from where he was
sitting, straddling a long beam of wood. Void of a single cloud, the deep
cerulean space above him felt like a warm cozy blanket.
His face split
into a grin that he couldn't hold back. It was a perfect day. They'd get all
their work done and the next with time to spare before any bad weather could
say different. This kind of luck had been following Mitch Broader ever since
he'd bought his share in the Double T's new rodeo school nearly a year ago.
That one small step would bring him closer to fulfilling a dream he'd had ever
since the day he'd first driven those long roads from the Amarillo Airport with
his grandfather.
Leaning forward
on the sturdy beam, he waited for the crew of cowboys down on the ground to
pass him and Beau Gentry, his longtime friend and now partner in the Double T's
rodeo school, another beam to slip in place. This barn they were raising would
give them plenty of room to house the horses they needed to run the school and
bring him one step closer to the day when he'd own his own ranch, a dream he'd
had since he'd come to Texas.
Of course, back
then, when Mitch was still a gangly green boy from Baltimore, Mitch hadn't
understood the hard work and dedication it would take to own a spread. After
years of working alongside some well-seasoned Texas cowboys, he knew. He'd
listened and learned his lessons well. Having a piece of the Double T's new
rodeo training school might not be the same as owning his own ranch, but it was
a step in the right direction. And for now, that suited Mitch just fine. He
wasn't in a hurry.
When this
crew--mostly volunteers from surrounding ranches and neighbors who'd come out
for the event like it was a square dance social--was done putting all the
pieces of this post and beam barn together, when the last spike was hammered
deep and secure into the fine wood, they would all celebrate. A party the size
of Texas with all the food and fixins' he'd come to enjoy.
Dancing and
women. Yeah, there would be plenty of that, too. And that was the fun part of
being a cowboy.
“Yo, Mitch!”
He peered down
from the beam he was holding on to, toward the sound of a familiar female voice
calling for him. A drop of sweat from his brow followed gravity and imbedded
itself in his eye causing it to sting. He had to blink twice before he could
focus.
“I'm kind of
hung up, Mandy. Want to wait a sec?” he called back to the blonde haired woman
staring up at him through squinted eyes. Mandy held her arched back with both
hands, clearly uncomfortable in the heat being that she was nearly seven months
pregnant with her first baby. There'd been a time, early on when he'd first
arrived at The Double T Ranch that he'd thought Mandy Morgan was the cutest
little creature he'd ever laid eyes on. Still sporting one heck of an
adolescent broken heart, he'd set himself for more heartache when she up and
fell in love with Beau, only to leave and never return to the ranch until last
summer. Within the last year she'd become Mandy Morgan Gentry, his bride.
Mitch reached
for one end of the beam being eased his way by the ground crew and slipped it
cleanly into the pre-notched hole.
“Ah, Mitch?”
Mandy called again. “If it was just me, I'd have no problem waiting on you.
But I don't think this is something that can wait.”
“You ain't in
labor or anythin', Mandy, are you? “ Beau said, ready to jump down from the
beam he was straddling to aid his wife, his face panic-stricken. “The doctor
said you were supposed to take it easy to keep from having any more
contractions.”
“Cool your
jets, Beau. I'm doing just fine,” she said with a chuckle and a twinkle in her
eye that made instant relief register on Beau's sun tanned face. Pointing a
finger at Mitch, she urged, “You're wanted in the house. Pronto.”
Mitch couldn't
help but stare as Mandy spun on her heels, with as much grace as a woman in her
condition could, and waddled back to the main farmhouse.
Beau chuckled
from the other end of the beam. “What'd you do, Mitch? Forget to scrape the
muck off your boots before walking into the house again?”
“It wouldn't be
the first time. Corrine made it more than clear she'd have my head on a spit
if I ruined that new carpet in the dining room.”
“Never known
Corrine to tell a lie.”
Mitch couldn't
help but laugh. Corrine Promise was a small woman, but the last two years had
tested her strength--had tested them all--and she'd come out of it
victoriously. The matriarch of the ranch, even though she'd rather hole up in
her art studio with her hands in clay or paints to being ten feet near a cow,
she was the epitome of the old time pioneer woman in spirit. While her husband
might be in charge of running the daily business as owner of The Double T
Ranch, there was no doubt it was Corrine who was in charge of the Promise home.
Mitch adjusted
his straw cowboy hat on his head, feeling another trickle of sweat make a
journey down the side of his face before dropping off and hitting his already
sweat soaked white T-shirt. He finished toe nailing the steel spike into the
beam to keep it in its place.
He glanced at
his handiwork with appreciation. If done right, this barn would be standing
long after he was nothing more than dust on this earth.
“Wish me luck,”
he muttered in somewhat of a groan as he climbed down from the skeleton of the
barn.
Beau's laughter
faded as Mitch hiked through the crowd of neighbors and friends gathered to
help with the festivities. A bundle of women stood gabbing under a shady tree
about something intense as they poured pink lemonade to pass out to the chain
of people working on the barn. They paid no attention to him as he grabbed one
of the filled paper cups lined on the table and drank it down before shooting
it into a garbage can at the end of the table.