Always and forever. That’s a promise.
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
Excerpt from Lakeside Secrets by K.D. Richards
Chapter One
Can you ever go home again?
The question hit a little too close as Duke Remington parked his truck in front of the two-story farmhouse where he’d spent most of his happiest moments during childhood.
The white siding with green shutters, metal roof and wraparound country porch had seen better days, but his grandfather Lorenzo Remington was too proud to accept more help than he deemed necessary or could afford to hire.
Early October in Mesa Point, Texas, the weather was always a crapshoot. This year, the record-setting string of hundred-plus-degree temperatures fueled a drought that threatened to dry up the shifty soil and swallow homes whole.
As far as the farmhouse went, between Duke, his two sisters and three cousins, they could have the place spruced up in a couple of weekends. Grandpa Lor wouldn’t hear of it.
The fact that Duke’s beloved grandfather and grandmother were lying in separate hospital beds in the ICU instead of here at the paint horse ranch they loved hit him hard. His grandparents had defied the odds just by being high school sweethearts who went the distance. Could they do it again by surviving a horrendous car wreck? If ever there was a time for either one of their stubborn streaks to kick in, it was now.
Duke exited his truck as the sun began to climb. He’d driven from his home south of Austin to Mesa General Hospital the minute he’d received word about the crash. He’d been able to arrange leave from work first. He, his siblings and cousins planned to work out a rotation. Blinking through blurry eyes that had been open for over twenty-four hours straight, he caught sight of Nash Shiloh making a beeline toward him from the barn.
Nash, as they called him, had worked the ranch since what felt like the dawn of time but was more like sixty years. Hired at fifteen as a ranch hand before working his way up over the years to foreman, he’d been the only one permitted to hang around. Folks said all he needed to do was put his hands on a horse to hear its thoughts, which was a miracle in Duke’s book. It was a gift he didn’t have with horses or people, unless criminals counted. There, he seemed to excel at reading their minds and anticipating their next steps.
As a US marshal, Duke encountered his fair share of felons in need of capture and could hold his own thanks to his unique gift. At least, gift was the label his skill had been given by his fellow marshals. Was it what he would call it? No. There wasn’t anything special about him. He couldn’t read other people’s thoughts. There was just a thin line between having the kind of mind that caught criminals and being one. A long time ago, Duke had realized he could stand on either side of that line. Doing good had been a choice, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The older man’s sun-worn skin practically hung on his bones at seventy-plus years old. Despite his age, Nash was still strong as an ox and could lift more hay bales than half the seasonal ranch hands four decades younger than him. But his age was starting to show in the slight limp in his right leg and the way his shoulders rounded on his six-foot frame.
Nash still had a full head of hair, and his mind was sharp as ever. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Duke met the foreman halfway and brought him into a bear hug. “I should have been here so it didn’t happen.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Nash said with compassion. He was too quick to let Duke and the others off easy. Like when they’d painted stripes on one of the horses and then put a sign up in the barn that read Beware of Zebras. “Heck, I would have driven to pick up the new saddles myself, but the old man...” His eyes flashed at Duke. “Your grandpa wanted to take his wife out for a fancy lunch in town.”
