Learning To Love (Carson Hill Ranch: Book 1)

By Amelia Rose

A contemporary cowboy romance novel.
This is book 2 in the Carson Hill Ranch series.
For Miranda, Newark has nothing to offer except a dead-end job, a crummy apartment, and an abusive boyfriend. But when her younger sister signs her up for an online dating website to prove to her the kinds of guys who would be interested in her, she starts an online connection with the perfect guy. He's handsome, he's a real-life cowboy, and...he's in his seventies!

Miranda steps off the bus to find the man of her dreams waiting for her, only he doesn't know it. His elderly father, concerned that his six sons are isolated on their highly prosperous 800,000-acre ranch signed up one of his oldest boys and did a little matchmaking behind their backs.

Now Miranda and Casey have a choice to make, but will they be willing to put aside their mistrust and give this a shot, or go their separate ways?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Crown
• Release date: Feb 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310104886

Amelia Rose

Amelia Rose holds a PhD in Literature and Language; she specializes in teaching positive, self-reliant principles to children and adults of all ages.  Dr. Rose lives with her husband and three children in the Hudson Valley, New York area, where she enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her family and friends.   Matthew Maley is an artist with nearly twenty-five years in the fields of Illustration and Design. His work has appeared in publications such as Archie Comics, Marvel, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Children’s Television Workshop. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, daughter, and a variety of animals.

Book preview

Learning to Love

Carson Hill Ranch: Book One

AMELIA ROSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Amelia Rose.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

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

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Chapter one

Get the rope! Get it cinched on there tight now! Bernard Carson called from his usual post, elbows propped on the split rail fence, overseeing the process of his two youngest sons helping with the calving. At almost seventy years old, the head of the Carson family no longer helped with the day to day process of the ranch but where his body might be too give out to cowpunch, his mind was still as sharp as ever.

Got it, Dad, his youngest son called back, using his father’s ancestral term of endearment. Jacob pulled the rope tight on the emerging calf’s hind legs, pulling gently to help the heifer along with the birth of another head of prized cattle.

Bernard twitched his hands against the wooden rail, wanting desperately to leap the fence and get in on the day-to-day work of ranching. It was one small part of what had drawn him to this open land in the first place, the opportunity to stake out a claim of land under an immense sky that stretched on forever, filling that land with thousands of head of cattle, and making the trek north with them year after year. It was what the cowboys of the Old West had done, and the connection he felt to them and their old ways was never more powerful than when he went about his work under the immense sky.

Sure, some things had changed since then. The telegraph was gone and his ranch hands now carried satellite phones on their hips where cowpokes once carried revolvers. The plows pulled by oxen had been replaced by industrial tractors with enclosed, air conditioned cabs. The wagon train that moved a herd across thousands of miles of open, untouched land had been replaced with vehicles driven in shifts.

But just as much as things changed, sometimes, things stayed the same, like the amazement of a calf being brought into the world, made even more amazing by watching his youngest sons go to work.

Seamus tied off the rope with a slip knot against the post in the middle of the fence, ensuring that it would hold throughout the birthing but would cut loose in a moment if the mother was in distress. It was surprising his father was letting the two of them take this on considering how much was invested in this tiny, slippery calf. If it was a female, it would mean up to two dozen other calves in its lifetime. If it was a bull, that number would be tenfold. Every second counted to make sure that whatever price it would fetch, it happened intact.

Finally, the tiny creature—well, tiny for a cow—popped out into the open, its eyes opening and closing in shock at the bright sunlight and stark change in temperature. Jacob reached for it with the burlap outstretched but Bernard intervened.

Leave her to it, son, she knows what she’s doing. This is her first time, but it’s an instinct, he called, amused at the way his two nearly grown sons, young men who could take on just about anything the frontier threw at them, were as giddy as new fathers themselves over the new member of the ranch and the miracle they had just taken part in. And he was right. The mother, unfazed by the difficult process she’d just endured, turned her massive head to her newborn calf and began to lick, warming it and comforting it. Jacob and Seamus joined their father at the fence rail and leapt the shoulder-height fence with a quick climb.

I see it a hundred times a year and it amazes me every time, Bernard said, gazing at the animals with admiration. You did good, boys. It’s a proud thing to watch your own sons take on at the ranch. The three cowboys, two fresh-faced and excited, one seasoned and respected, watched the animals in silence for a moment before turning toward the house, dusting their hands in the sawdust then brushing the grime from their leather coveralls as they went.

Bernard left Jacob and Seamus to clean up in the tack room adjacent to the barn and went into the main house. Walking into the foyer of the grand house never failed to leave him a little cold, feeling for the hundredth time the pang of loss of his wife, Margaret. She had been a true lady, even out here on the farm, and had always kept their home as a lady would. It had been only ten years since he’d lost her, dying shortly after the difficult birth of the last child to follow Seamus and Jacob, but it still hurt as though she had passed only yesterday.

These days, her home was nowhere near as grand. It was far from in shambles, but it lacked the womanly touch she’d always brought to it. The silver bowls she’d brought from the city when she came to this ranch as a new wife once held flower blooms she cut herself every morning from her garden, a task she wouldn’t even leave to the hired help. Instead, it was normal to find a random collection of items in her silver, things men would leave lying around a ranch: a bowie knife, a wad of twine, a spur that needed repair, or some rusted nails.

We need a woman around the place to make this a home again, Bernard thought wistfully, his mind immediately going to any of the six very eligible sons he had living on the ranch. Apart from the younger twins, there were a set of older twins as well, with two single brothers born in between. All of them were eligible to start looking, what with the older twins, Carey and Casey, being twenty-two for most of a year now. The trouble was the same problem they had with the cattle: eligible mates had to be found elsewhere.

Part of why Carson Hill Ranch was known for producing the best herd was because Bernard had learned from his own family’s farming traditions that dated all the way back to his ancestors from Belgium. But whether it was sheep in the foothills of the Alps or steer in the Texas plains, one thing about these animals was universal, and that was the need to bring in outside mates from time to time to ensure a strong stock.

Look at me, calling the future mothers of my grandchildren stock, the old man thought with some measure of disbelief. Maybe I’ve been at this too long.

So, Dad, how’d the boys do? Joseph asked, coming up behind his father and patting him on the shoulder. That last calf came out okay?

Sure did, the boys made proud work of it. But where are your older brothers? Shouldn’t they have been around for this? Bernard asked, his impatience showing on that last word. Unlike his sons, who’d grown up among the hired hands from the area and gone to school with some of the local kids, Bernard had spent his entire life on this ranch, even being schooled at home alongside the children of the ranch hands. By the time Bernard had inherited the ranch and began thinking of having a family, he had been some twenty years older than his somewhat younger wife. The two of them had been happy to stay isolated on the ranch, so much so, that some days, Bernard felt as out of place on his own land because of the generation gap he felt all around him.

They should still be working on that fence, if I’m not mistaken. We finally found the hole yesterday, and they were out before breakfast this morning to get to it before we have any more cows wander off.

And you didn’t help your brothers? the old man asked, a teasing tone in his voice even as he prodded one of his two middle sons.

Joseph laughed. I knew you were gonna say something about it! No, I’ve been out with one of the foremen all day, baiting for coyote. His father’s face darkened. I know, I know, you don’t have to say anything. But I’m sorry, Dad, it has to be done.

Bernard had never understood the need to kill a weaker animal by luring it to its death. Taking out an aggressive scavenger that came onto your property was one thing, but actively bringing them to the land so they can die in pain, just to save a few cattle? That was more than he liked to think about.

You know how I feel about it. I suppose this is why I have foremen, to make these decisions for me. But I don’t have to like it and you don’t have to brag about it, Bernard admonished.

Yes, Dad, Joseph said, dropping his head a little. He hated to disappoint his father, but the coyotes had been coming to the ranch more and more frequently because of the lack of rain this past season, following the smaller prairie animals that came for the storehouses. But instead of catching the smaller animals, they ran the cattle to death instinctively. But it would be different if they came and took out an old or sick cow once in a while because they needed the food. They don’t even eat it. They just chase one until she dies, choking on her own tongue from exhaustion and fear. If you feel this sorry for a lousy coyote, try feeling sorry for the herd. That has to be a horrible way to die, especially when it’s for nothing.

Of course, you’re right, my son, Bernard sighed. But when you get to be my age, you don’t like to think of anything dying. It’s too close to home! Joseph shook his head.

Now we’re not having that talk, Dad. You’re not going anywhere, and neither are the rest of us. When I see the others, I’ll tell ‘em you’re looking for ‘em. He clapped his father on the back in farewell and headed back out to the stable to see to his horse.

Chapter two

Ah! There you are, boys! Bernard called from his office as Carey and Casey passed by. Come in here, I want to speak with you!

Casey dropped his shoulders in defeat, but Carey nudged him sharply with his elbow, reminding him to straighten up. It had been a long, hot day and the heat hadn’t let up in the slightest, even though the sun was nearly below the horizon. This is the time of day that even showering off in one of the dozen shower stalls in the washroom didn’t cool