Love Inspired November 2015, Box Set 2 of 2 by Patricia Davids

Author:Patricia Davids
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459292208
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS GIFT

Arlene James

Two are better than one,

because they have a good reward for their toil.

—Ecclesiastes 4:9

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Dear Reader

Chapter One

The Christmas lights along Main Street twinkled merrily as Matthew Ender drove his sweet new double-cab pickup truck through the small town of Red Bluff, Oklahoma. The hour had gone well past midnight, making it technically the second of December. In a just world, he’d have been in Las Vegas participating in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association National Finals Rodeo. Instead, he’d spent the past week in a hospital in Florida, having the ligaments, muscle and skin surgically restored to the thumb of his right hand, which throbbed just now with a power that made his whole body hurt.

He’d only meant to solidify his place in the finals with one last win in Florida and pick up some extra cash, but he’d been riding a horse in training, and the critter had sidestepped at just the wrong moment. Matt’s hand had gotten caught in the dally, the wrap of his rope around the saddle horn, while he was in the process of dismounting. When the horse had sidestepped, it had taken the glove off his hand and all the meat and sinew right off his thumb with it, leaving the bare bone exposed.

A good sports doctor on site had stopped the bleeding and rescued the tissue, but Matt’s first trip to the National Finals in his nearly eleven-year-long rodeo career had ended before it had even begun, and he’d spent a good chunk of his year’s earnings paying the hospital bills. He’d had no real choice but to head back home to his grandmother’s ranch, where he’d grown up, in order to recuperate.

Well, at least Grandma Sheryl would finally get her wish to have both her grandsons home for Christmas. Usually only Matt’s younger brother, Marcus, showed up. It had been so long since Matt had come home that Sheryl would probably faint at the sight of him. She’d have to faint in the morning, though. He was too tired and in too much pain to deal with a homecoming tonight. Driving himself had meant staying off the pain meds, and twenty-four straight hours of that had just about killed him.

Matt had done some serious praying since that horse had sidestepped. He hadn’t done much of that in the years after his dad had died in a tractor accident when he was thirteen, but time had knocked some sense into him, and after he’d talked to the doctors about his thumb, he’d prayed almost without ceasing. He’d prayed first just to keep his thumb, then to be able to rope and ride again. Now he prayed to make it home in one piece. Hurting now and so tired he could barely see, he prayed himself out of town and over those familiar old country roads.

He’d been home every now and then over the years, for an hour or two here and there, just to check on Gran and see that the old place was still standing.

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