Learning To Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series:Book 1) Read Free

babies.”
                  “But of course you can! Look! I see it right here!” Bernard got up and came over to the desk, clicking the mouse a few times to open some bookmarks he’d saved. “See? These women want to make a new start, a fresh start out in the wide open!”
                  “That’s because they’ve been to prison, Dad. That’s what they mean by a ‘fresh start.’ They want to move where no one knows about their past!” Carey argued.
                  “Carey,” Casey warned in a low voice, “do something about this. I am not going to be bred like one of Dad’s old cows!”
                  “My sons, sit back down and listen to me,” Bernard began. Casey fought to maintain his composure, both from wanting to wash off the dirt from a long, hot day and finally eat a good meal, and from the prospect that his father had been posting information about him on the Internet like a pimp and wanted to talk about it. The last thing on his mind was listening to his father’s grand plans for matchmaking. “When my ancestors first came to Texas, it took many, many weeks of travel. First, there was a whole ocean to cross, then there was almost an entire continent to cross, too. They arrived to find it was an empty place that filled men with empty feelings. It’s still a wonder to me to look out and see forever, to see so many stars, where all my relatives used to see was the little bit of sky that wasn’t hidden by the mountains around their village.”
                  “But after such a long time to make it to their new home, the first Carson to try to stake a homestead claim had only been here for a short time before he knew this land fulfilled him in a way that the mountains never could. Here, he was a man who owned the very ground we walk on today. The Carson family ranching empire started with a small herd of only three cows and over the years, each generation built that herd into everything you see today. Now, I have a ranch that goes on for sixty miles in all directions, and a home with room enough for fifty men. What I don’t have is someone to share it with me, to stand on the edge of my land and let me say to her, ‘This is what my people built, and I share it with you.’. You might think working the ranch is all there is and for right now, maybe you’re right. But there will come a day when you want to look back and know you built something more than just a ranch. You’ll want to know that you built a life.”
                  The boys stood quietly, absorbing their father’s heartfelt words. Losing their mother had been hard on them when they were young, but they barely remembered her. It was their father who had known her for much longer, who had finally found someone to share his life with after so long.
                  “When I found your mama, there was no Internet dating that you sneered at,” Bernard said, flipping his hand in the direction of the computer to reflect their disgust with it. “She came here because, like me, she wanted to be a part of something that could be all hers. Your mama wasn’t from the country, she moved here from a city, a loud and dirty place where no man, woman, or child could really breathe. Coming to this ranch for her was like being alive for the first time in her life. And yes, she and I took a long time to meet each other and get to know one another, but affection grows with time. You find a woman with the qualities that are important to you, and you treat her with the respect that is due to the person who gives you your children, and everything else will take care of itself. That is the way to happiness, my sons.”
    Carey coughed awkwardly, humbled by hearing his father say more words at once than he often spoke all day, words that were filled with an undercurrent of longing for something he had lost. “Well, Dad, you know best. Go ahead and submit those