Wildflower Ranch

Book 2: The Canyon Series

by Carolyn Brown

Genres: Siblings; Sagas; Clean & Wholesome Romance; Contemporary Romance; Western Romance

Synopsis

The bonds of sisterhood are about to be tested by the cowboy next door in this delightful story of family and forgiveness by the New York Times bestselling author of Daisies in the Canyon.

Growing up, Shiloh Walker could only imagine what it would have been like to have sisters. Now she's finding out, as the father she never knew has left his ranch to Shiloh and her two half-siblings. The only catch: to fully inherit, they have to live there together for a full year. Anyone who leaves forfeits her stake.

Shiloh couldn't be more different from Abby Joy, a former soldier, or Bonnie, a true wild child. But the three soon find they have more in common than they ever thought possible.

When a neighboring cowboy is injured, Shiloh thinks she'll just stay with him a few days to help out. As handsome and sweet as he is, it's hardly a chore. But suddenly a life-changing event has her facing her toughest decision yet: follow her heart or win the ranch.

Release date: February 4, 2020

Publisher: Forever Yours

Print pages: 92

Sample

Chapter One

Spring was Waylon’s favorite season, when the wildflowers painted the Palo Duro Canyon with their brilliant colors. That evening, the last rays of sun lit up the red Indian paintbrush, almost the same color as the dress Shiloh was wearing. The centers of the black-eyed Susans reminded him of her dark hair, and the blue bonnets scattered here and there were the color of her eyes.

“Wildflower Ranch,” he whispered and liked the way it rolled off his tongue. He’d been looking for a brand for his new ranch ever since he bought it. “I like it. Wildflower Ranch,” he said again with a nod, and just like that, he’d named his place.

Since most of his friends were married, Waylon had been to lots of weddings. Like always, he found a corner where he could watch the people without having to mingle with them. He wasn’t really shy or backward, but though he didn’t like crowds he did like watching people. And he liked to dance some leather off his boots at the Sugar Shack, the local watering hole, on Saturday nights.

Shiloh breezed in and out of the house, appearing under the porch light to talk to someone for a few minutes, and then disappearing for a little while, only to return again. She looked different from the way she did at Ezra’s funeral not quite three months ago. That day Waylon had stood off to the side as the sisters arrived one by one. Abby Joy was the last one to get there, and she looked like she had just left a military exercise in her camouflage. Shiloh might have come from a rodeo in her western getup, and Bonnie could have been a biker’s woman in black leather and sporting a nose ring and tattoo. At that time he had wondered if Ezra hadn’t been right when he sent all of them away right after they were born.

But ever since that morning, he hadn’t been able to get Shiloh out of his mind.

Now there were only two sisters in the running to inherit the Malloy Ranch—Shiloh and Bonnie. When the sisters first came to the canyon, Waylon would have sworn that Shiloh would be the first to leave. Bonnie would follow her within a week, and Abby Joy would be there until they buried her beside old Ezra in the Malloy family cemetery right there on the ranch.

He’d sure been wrong, because that very evening Abby Joy had married his good friend Cooper and moved off Malloy ranch and over to his place. It wasn’t the first time Waylon had been wrong, and it most likely wouldn’t be the last time, either. He watched the two remaining Malloy sisters out of the corner of his eye. Shiloh was the taller of the two and had long dark brown hair.

In her cowboy boots and tight jeans at her father’s funeral, she had looked like she was the queen of Texas. Maybe that confidence and sass was what had drawn him to her from the beginning. Not that he’d act on the attraction, not when there was so much at stake for her. Ezra had left a will behind, saying that the three sisters had to live on the Malloy Ranch together for a year. If one of them left, then they received an inheritance, but they could never have the ranch. If none of them left, then they inherited the place jointly. If they all moved off Ezra’s massive spread, then Rusty, his foreman, inherited it.

Waylon had always thought that deep down Ezra wanted Rusty to have the place anyway. He’d just brought the sisters together to satisfy his own conscience for sending them away at birth because they weren’t sons.

Waylon was a patient man. He didn’t mind sitting back in the shadows of the wide porch and waiting for another look at Shiloh in that dress that hugged her curves. When she came back again, he sat up a little straighter so he could get a better view of her. The full moon lit her eyes up that evening like beautiful sapphires. His pulse jacked up a few notches and his heart threw in an extra fast beat. He could only imagine what kissing her or holding her in his arms would feel like—but he sure liked the picture in his head when he did.

The reception had started in the house and then poured out onto the porch and yard. That’s where Shiloh was headed right then. She met up with Bonnie, and the two of them talked with their hands, gesturing toward the house and then back at the piano under a big scrub oak.

Maybe they were trying to figure out how to get the piano back inside. Waylon would be glad to help them with that, just to be near Shiloh for a little while. The chairs that had been arranged in two rows for the wedding were now scattered here and there, and Shiloh picked up one with each hand and carried them from the yard to the porch.

“Need some help?” Waylon asked when she was close enough that the porch light lit up her beautiful eyes. Ezra Malloy’s three daughters hadn’t gotten a physical thing from him, except the color of his eyes, and even then they were all three slightly different shades of blue.

“Hey, what are you doing hiding back here?” Bonnie, the youngest Malloy sister, pulled up a chair and sat down beside him.

“Just watching the people,” Waylon answered. “You look right pretty tonight, Bonnie. When I first saw you at Ezra’s funeral, you looked like maybe you were into motorcycles.”

“I might have been, but they cost way too much money for me to own one. My boyfriend had one back in Harlan.” Bonnie sighed. “If I’d known Abby Joy was going to wear combat boots, I would have worn my comfortable lace-up biker boots.” She kicked off her shoes. “He bought me the jacket and boots, and then we broke up. He didn’t want me to come out here to Texas when Ezra died. He said I was too wild to live on a ranch. I’m proving him wrong.” She stopped, as if waiting for him to say something, but she hadn’t asked a question. After a few seconds she went on, “Have you ever been a groomsman before? This was my first time ever to be a bridesmaid.”

“No,” he answered. “I’ve been to a lot of weddings, but I’m not usually one for big crowds.”

Shiloh pushed the front door open and motioned to her sister. “Bonnie, come on. Abby Joy is getting ready to throw the bouquet.”

Bonnie got up, but Waylon stayed in his chair. Shiloh’s high-heeled shoes made a clicking noise on the wooden porch as she crossed it, and she crooked a finger at Waylon. “You too, cowboy. Cooper is about to take Abby Joy’s garter off, and he’s calling for all single men.”

“Oh, no!” Waylon held up both palms. “I don’t want that thing.”

“I’m not catching that bouquet either. I’m superstitious, and I refuse to be the next bride in the canyon,” Bonnie said. “I’m going to own a ranch in nine months. I sure don’t have time for romance.”

“You’ll own the Malloy ranch over my dead body.” Shiloh did a head wiggle. “The best you’ll ever do is share it with me.”

“Wanna bet?” Bonnie stopped at the door.

Shiloh stuck out her hand. “Twenty bucks?”

“How about a hundred and a bottle of good Kentucky bourbon?” Bonnie asked.

“Deal!” Shiloh shook with her.

Waylon didn’t have a doubt in his mind that Bonnie would be forking over money and bourbon. Next to Abby Joy, he’d never met a woman as determined as Shiloh—or as sassy for that matter.

Shiloh surprised him when she grabbed his hand and tugged. “Come on. You can put your hands in your pockets, but you’re one of the wedding party. It wouldn’t be right for you not to be in on the garter toss.”

He stood up, thinking she’d drop his hand, but she didn’t. Sparks flittered around . . .