Home on the Ranch_Montana Rodeo Star by Mary Sullivan

Author:Mary Sullivan [Sullivan, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-10-10T19:11:32+00:00

* * *

“Mom, what are you up to?” Dusty asked, when she came into the room to set him up for lunch with plenty of pillows at his back. “Why did you invite Max to lunch?”

“What do you mean?” Hmm. She might appear to be innocent enough, but he didn’t trust her. “She looked hungry. And, to be honest, I think she’s lonely. I couldn’t not ask her.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Well, okay. For a horrifying few minutes, he’d thought she was matchmaking him with Max, a woman so far from his ideal of who he eventually wanted to marry, years from now, that he’d recoiled.

But, nah. It couldn’t be that.

Max couldn’t possibly be anything like the woman his mom would have picked out for him. Mom wore nail polish.

On the thin side—he already knew Max put her own needs dead last—Max might appear to a stranger like she needed a good meal. Mom seemed sincere. Maybe Dusty read too much into her intentions.

Lunch turned out to be a lively affair with Mom presiding. Life with her had always been entertaining.

When a kid, Dusty’s friends had envied him his great mom. She’d been a decade older than their mothers, but she hadn’t behaved that way.

Mom had spent most of her waking hours back then crawling around on the floor with her toddler son. The second Dusty grew old enough for the saddle, though, he’d become his father’s child. From sunup until sundown, he spent his days learning mutton busting, roping, riding and just about anything his dad would show him.

A decent rodeo performer in his day, his dad fed every scrap of knowledge he owned to his son, who soaked it up like a miniature cowboy sponge.

To this day, Dusty credited his parents for his successes in life. Yeah, he worked hard, but they had taught him how to do that and love doing it.

He noticed Max watching his mother from across the table, wide-eyed and wondering. It left Dusty trying to understand why. What did Max see when she looked at Charlie? What had her childhood been like? Good? Bad? What had happened to her parents?

He would have to ask. But no. Why would he? He’d be here for only three more weeks. After he finished the job, he’d head on out to his next adventure with Maxine Porter nothing more than a footnote in his life.

“Mom?” The small voice from the other side of the screen door was Josh’s. “Are you over here visiting Dusty? Who belongs to that strange car?”

“C’mon in,” Dusty called before his mother could make free with his living space again.

Josh entered and his mother went into raptures. “Who is this?”

“My son, Josh,” Max said and damned if she didn’t look both shy and pleased, proud as punch to be able to share the mothering experience with his mother.

“Have you had your lunch?” Charlie asked Josh, because above all things she liked to feed little boys.

“Marvin gave me macaroni.”

“Marvin?” Charlie asked.

Mom knew Marvin darned well, but put on a good show to hide Dusty’s secret.

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