Lily's Cowboys Read Free

mean; no they were just angry, confused, and ornery. None of them knowing how to overcome what life had dished out to them.

    Ethan was the oldest at thirty-three. He was trying to take on the responsibility of everyone. He had taken over the reins of the ranch when their parents had been killed in an airplane crash almost ten years before. He did all the bookkeeping, buying, and investments that made the ranch so profitable, as well as, trying to be a ranch hand when needed. He was burning the candle at both ends and now felt responsible for what had happened to Allen.

    Caleb bottled everything up never letting anyone get too close to him. He spent as much time out on the range as he could. He made sure everything outside the house ran smoothly because he didn’t know how to deal with what was happening inside it. He felt just as responsible for Allen being in the shape he was in believing he could have prevented what happen somehow. At thirty, he had always been the one to hold things in and not show much emotion. The problem with that was it ate at the inside of him.

    Allen, on the other hand, was angry at the world. He had taken off at twenty and joined the military against his older brothers’ wishes wanting to get away from the ranch. At twenty-eight, he had spent the last eight years traveling and fighting all over the world. Eight months ago the boys’ world crashed down around them when it was reported Allen was missing in action in South America. When he was finally rescued he had been beaten and tortured. At first, it was unclear if he would even make it. Both his legs had been broken and he was covered in cuts and bruises. The jungle climate had been perfect for infection to set in and when he had been transported to the closest military hospital it had been touch and go for the next week. They had reset his legs and he was healing slowly. He no longer needed the wheelchair. Ethan and Caleb had brought him home six months ago and he hadn’t left the room they had set up for him since, preferring to hide in the dark with his whiskey. Ethan and Caleb had tried at first to get him to go to physical therapy only to have every therapist in a four state region refuse to come back to the ranch, no matter how much they offered to pay them. As the pressure of everything going on increased, one housekeeper after another began leaving as the boys’ tempers escalated to a breaking point. They could hardly stand being together in the same room. Maggie had stepped in again two months ago but even she was at her wit’s end. The boys needed a miracle and she needed to find it.

    Standing in the kitchen she put on her coat and picked up her purse. “Please lord if you are listening my boys need an angel, one with a lot of patience. If you can find one you can share, I’d be mighty appreciative. I know I don’t talk to you as often as I should but the boys need someone to love and who can love them. Please, if you can find the time, please send my boys an angel to love.”

    Sighing, she closed the door just as she heard a bottle crashing against a wall and a loud curse. Pulling her gloves on to ward off the cold Wyoming winter, she walked out to the truck and drove to town on a mission.

Chapter 2

    Maggie pulled into the parking space in front of The Flats Grill. The old diner was a favorite among the locals. If you needed news or wanted to find someone to help you out this was the place to go. Any news in Boulder Flats, Wyoming would pass through the diner at some point. Getting out of the truck, Maggie felt every minute of her seventy-two years. She pushed open the door and moved to a booth near the back of the diner. She would ask Gladys if she knew of anyone looking for a housekeeping job. She would have to let whoever interviewed know it would be in a combat zone.

    Dropping her scarf and purse on the seat next to her, she removed her heavy coat and hung it on the coat rack next to the corridor leading to the