True Love at Silver Creek Ranch - By Emma Cane Page 0,107
even talked to my dad about building an indoor riding arena,” she admitted. “I never thought I could be this happy, finding something for me and starting over.”
He smiled down at her, his eyes laughing in a way they never had before.
“You seem at peace with yourself,” Adam said. “No more uncertainty or doubts.”
“I could say the same about you.”
He shrugged and leaned against the wall in the front hall. “I won’t forget the hurt because it will always be with me, but . . . I’m alive. How can I not do justice to that? I want to start over, to live life looking forward, not back.” And then his gaze searched her face. “I want that life to be with you.”
“You do?” she whispered breathlessly.
“I fell in love with you, Brooke. I think you worked some kind of magic on me.”
She laughed, even as she quickly wiped her eyes. “I love you, too, Adam.”
They looked at each other for a moment, full of wonder. She could sense a world of possibilities opening up before them.
“You felt you’d never have a real family,” she said. “But Christmas is almost here. Let me share my family with you.”
And there was even more to share, a tender kiss of promise. Brooke couldn’t help overhearing her dad say, “They don’t look like they’re just startin’ to date.”
Her mom shushed him.
About the Author
EMMA CANE grew up reading, and soon discovered that she liked to write passionate stories of teenagers in space. Her love of “passionate stories” has never gone away, although today she concentrates on the heartwarming characters of Valentine, Colorado, a small town of her own creation nestled in the Rocky Mountains.
Now that her three children are grown, Emma loves spending time crocheting and singing (although not necessarily at the same time), and hiking and snowshoeing alongside her husband, Jim, and two rambunctious dogs, Apollo and Uma.
Emma also writes USA Today bestselling novels under the name Gayle Callen.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Valentine Valley Novels by Emma Crane
True Love at Silver Creek Ranch
A Town Called Valentine
Can’t get enough of Valentine Valley? Good news, there is so much more to come!
Fall in love all over again at Nate and Emily’s wedding in an e-book original short story from Avon Impulse in Summer 2013.
Keep an eye out for back-to-back visits to Valentine Valley in two amazing new books from Emma Cane, coming in Winter 2014.
Keep reading for a look at where it all began in
A Town Called Valentine
Available Now
Chapter One
The car gave one last shudder as Emily Murphy came to a stop in a parking space just beneath the blinking sign of Tony’s Tavern. She turned off the ignition and leaned back against the headrest as the rain drummed on the roof, and the evening’s darkness settled around her. The car will be all right, she told herself firmly. Taking a deep breath, she willed her shoulders to relax after a long, stressful day driving up into the Colorado Rockies. Though the trip had been full of stunning mountain vistas still topped by snow in May, she had never let her focus waver from her mission.
She glanced up at the flashing neon sign, and her stomach growled. The tavern was near the highway and wasn’t the most welcoming place. There were only two pickups and a motorcycle beside her car on this wet night.
Her stomach gurgled again, and with a sigh, she tugged up the hood of her raincoat, grabbed her purse, and stepped out into the rain. Gingerly jumping over puddles, she made it beneath the overhang above the door and went inside. A blast of heat and the smell of beer hit her face. The tavern was sparsely furnished, with a half dozen tables and a long bar on the right side of the room. Between neon signs advertising beer, mounted animal heads peered down at the half dozen customers. A man and a woman sat at one table, watching a baseball game on the flat screen TV—at least there was one other woman in the place. Another couple men hunched at the bar, glancing from beneath their cowboy hats at her before turning away. No surprise there.
When she hesitated, the bartender, a man in his thirties, with shaggy dark hair and pleasant features, gave her a nod. “Sit anywhere you’d like.”
Smiling gratefully, she slipped off her raincoat, hung it on one of the many hooks near the door, and sat down. She discovered her table was opposite