A Promise in Defiance: Romance in the Rockies Book 3 Read Free

Lord . . . help make this town a place
for decent folk to live.”
    “Oh,” she chuckled,
backing away from him, “oh, if this don’t beat all.” Delilah shook her head as
if she either couldn’t believe her luck or his foolishness. “Preacher, have you
got your work cut out for you.”
    “So my Boss tells me.”
    She rested her hands on
her hips and looked up at him through long, dark lashes.
    She sure has pretty skin.
My, if I was a weaker man . . .
    “I’ve come here to put
Defiance back on the map, Preacher. I’m gonna turn this town back into one
hell-raising, hard-drinking boomtown.” Her eyes flickered with heat. Licking
her lips, she dragged dainty, manicured hands slowly across the tops of her
breasts. “If I were you, I wouldn’t stand in my way.”

Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    “Two Spears?” Naomi
strode to the edge of the yard and peered into the forest of pines. “Two
Spears, come back to the house this instant!”
    A stubborn silence
greeted her command. “Two Spears?” she called again, her frustration growing. She
hated sounding annoyed. Charles’s son from a previous relationship, somehow he wound
up spending more time with Naomi than his father. Time that was tense and
unpleasant.
    Two Spears watched
everything she did with dark eyes full of hate. She couldn’t blame him. His Indian
mother had been murdered by white soldiers, his renegade stepfather had been
shot dead by Charles. Not a recipe for raising a happy child.
    Lord, reaching this boy
is going to take love and compassion I’m not sure I have. Fill me up with Yours. Shaking her bangs out of her eyes, she yelled again but tried to sound more
concerned than angry. “Two Spears, where are you?”
    Hoofbeats, muffled by
the forest, reached her ears and she turned toward the road. A moment later,
Charles emerged from the trees, coming in at an easy lope. In spite of her
stress, she took a moment to enjoy the sight of her handsome husband, dark hair
blowing beneath his Stetson, body moving as one with the horse, riding as
effortlessly as she breathed. He’d gone out to survey timber. She was relieved
he hadn’t taken all day to do it.
    He saw her and waved,
but something of her turmoil must have showed. His light expression faded as he
rode up, his narrow beard and mustache framing a mouth tense with concern. He dismounted
quickly and wrapped the reins around the hitching post in front of their cabin.
    “What’s the matter?” Striding
to her, he surveyed the yard. “Where’s Two Spears?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “What do you mean you
don’t know?”
    She raised her hands to
her hips and tried to let that be her only expression of annoyance. “Exactly
that. I asked him to catch some fish for supper while I pulled weeds in the
garden. When I went to check on him, he was nowhere in sight.”
    Charles lifted his hat
and ran a hand through dark wavy hair as he searched the yard again. Dropping
the hat back in place, he fluttered his lips in exasperation.
    Naomi and Charles had inherited Two Spears the day after their wedding, not even two weeks ago. His
grandfather, the great Ute chief, had dumped him on their doorstep. The
struggle to adapt to marriage and a child was wearing on them both.
    “You think he’s run off
again?” he asked, staring into the trees.
    She sighed. “I should
have been watching him more closely, but it’s been over a week since the last
time. I thought he was finally settled.”
    “More likely, he’s just
patient. Like his grandfather.” Charles turned, unwound the reins, and swung up
into his saddle. His Southern drawl, which normally poured off his tongue like Tupelo
honey, couldn’t mask his regret. “I’m sorry, Naomi.” Leather squeaked as he
sighed deeply. “It seems my past—”
    “May never stop
haunting us.” She shook her head and laid her hand on his knee. “I said I was
in this for the long haul. I won’t back away, but you can’t keep avoiding
that boy. Try to find