Wearing the Rancher's Ring (Men of the West) by Stella Bagwell

Author:Stella Bagwell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Compared to the rest of the Silver Horn three-story ranch house, the dining room was a small, cozy room with a wall of windows on one side and a massive wooden buffet and china cabinet against the other. A long oak table filled the center of the room, and tonight it was decorated festively with bowls of yellow and copper mums alternated with fat white flickering candles.

As everyone around the table enjoyed the main course of prime rib, Olivia decided the room looked almost as it had ten years ago when she’d visited Clancy’s home for the first and only time. As for his family, they’d not changed in appearance much, either, except that Orin had a bit more gray hair and Bart a few more wrinkles.

Clancy’s brothers, Evan, Rafe and Finn, had all matured into handsome, rugged men with red-haired Finn looking more like Clancy and Evan and Rafe favoring their late mother, Claudia. Bowie, the youngest of the brothers, had been expected to return home more than two years ago from a long stint in the marines, but at the last minute he’d decided to reenlist. From what Clancy had told her, Bowie’s decision had greatly disappointed his father and grandfather. Even so, it was evident to Olivia that the mention of Bowie’s name always elicited proud comments from the whole family.

Though it was male dominated, there were a few women—Rafe’s wife, Lilly, was there with their baby daughter, Colleen, and the mysterious half sister, Sassy, with her husband and son, along with Orin’s date, Noreen. The kids had been fed earlier and were put down to sleep.

“So tell us, Olivia, is your work much different here in Nevada than it was in southern Idaho?” Orin asked.

Feeling as though every eye in the room was on her, Olivia glanced toward the end of the table where Orin was seated. He and everyone in the family had been warm and welcoming to her. But then, she’d not expected anything less from Clancy’s family. They were not only a classy bunch, but they loved and respected Clancy too much to treat her with anything less than kindness.

“The terrain is different somewhat and so is the weather. And I’ve never seen so many old abandoned mines on the land around here,” she said.

Bart spoke between bites of rare beef. “Clancy told us about the old mine you two found on the Rock Mountain range. I’ve been wanting to go up there and take a look at it myself. What do you think, Olivia? Think there might be any valuable ore there?”

The unexpected question caused her to pause, while down the table Orin frowned at his father.

“Dad, what kind of question is that? We’re going to send a dozer up there to close off the entrance of the cave.”

Bart leveled a pointed look at his son. “I never said anything about filling the mine in. You did. And the last time I looked, I still run this place,” he told Orin, then focused his attention back on Olivia.

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