Read Shane Online

Authors: Vanessa Devereaux

Shane

BOOK: Shane
6.95Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

 

 

 

Evernight
Publishing

 

www.evernightpublishing.com

 

 

 

Copyright©
2014 Vanessa
Devereaux

 

 

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-739-0

 

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

 

Editor: Kerry
Genova

 

 

 

ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED

 

 

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of
this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

 

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are
fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

 

 

DEDICATION

 

In Memory of Freddie Thompson

 

SHANE

 

Big Sky Cowboys, 1

 

Vanessa
Devereaux

 

Copyright ©
2014

 

 

 

Prologue

 

Marie closed and then locked the café door. She turned
and walked toward her car, momentarily looking up at the night sky. Not a cloud
in sight, but there was a definite chill in the air. Fall had arrived in
Montana. It was her favorite time of the year. She put her hand on the handle
of the car door just as a flash of light caught her attention. She glanced up
again.

A shooting star projecting through the sky held her
attention. She hadn’t seen one of those since...since her husband had proposed
to her over forty-eight years ago. It was beautiful, so perfect, and she was
spellbound as it traveled on its path to the west. Her mother had told her if
you were lucky enough to spot one you could make three wishes.

Marie got into her car and was about to start the
ignition, but then stopped. Her mother had never been wrong about legends and
tales. Her father had often joked and teased her about all the silly tales her
family had brought with them from the old country, but sure enough if her
mother made a prediction or told you something, like the legend of the shooting
star, it turned out to be true.

Leaning on the steering wheel so she could see more
of the sky through the windshield, she caught her last glimpse of the star
before it descended behind the mountain range.

What three wishes would she ask for?

She had everything, but her three sons didn’t. They
were all bachelors, and while they might never admit to being lonely, she knew
true love was what all her children really wanted.

“Okay shooting star, my three wishes are that Flynn,
Rory, and Shane find the love of their lives. Women who they will fall quickly
in love with, and who will love them back.”

She closed her eyes, wondering which one of her sons
would be the first to find romance.

 

Chapter
One

 

Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea after all.
 
Maybe she should pull out the atlas one more
time and make her destination the
second
place her finger landed on. But no, that would be cheating. She said she’d go
wherever fate, or in this case her finger, took her and she was close to that
very location. Or at least she hoped she was.

Montana had been correctly named Big Sky Country.
 
Lacey had driven for at least twenty miles
and only seen a total of five other cars, trucks if you wanted to be nit-picky.
She had seen lots of cattle, a few horses, and yes, lots of the big sky.

Beautiful,
but frigging freezing.

Not that Boston was warm this time of the year, but
it certainly was hotter than here.

 
She momentarily
took her eyes off the road to turn up the car’s heater a notch. A blast of warm
air hit her cheeks, but it was her fingers that were so damn cold, despite the
gloves she was wearing. People back home whined about the weather in New
England, but this was something else. She might have guessed that at this high
altitude it was going to be damn chilly.

She tapped her fingers on the wheel, thinking that
might rev up the blood inside them and take away the tinge of pain she was now
feeling in all her extremities. Maybe if she turned on the radio she could tap
in time to the music which would keep her going just a little while longer. She
pressed the switch and country music drifted through the speakers. She turned
up the corner of her mouth and winced.

She hated county music, always had, and probably
always would. But that was no
problem,
she just
wouldn’t listen to the radio. But truth was
,
she loved
music. She fiddled around with the radio’s buttons, trying to pick up something
other than a crying in your beer type song, but the reception was poor. If only
she’d put her CDs in the car and not the trunk. She’d pull out a few at the
next rest stop.

Yeah, rest stops weren’t frequent things in Big Sky
County either. Still, she’d be at her final destination soon. She glanced at the
print out of the job she’d found online. It sounded interesting. It sounded
fun. And best of all, it sounded like something completely different to begin
the next chapter of her life in this ‘new to her’ part of the country.

The road began to head to the left and then up an incline,
so she put her foot down on the accelerator. Once she got to the top and began
descending again, she could see a town in the distance.
Out
in the middle of nowhere but so much the better.
No memories, no
distractions, no men, well, probably not the type who wore designer suits and
ties. Yeah, the ones she’d always fallen hard for, and
look
where that had gotten her.

She hit the brakes when a herd of cattle began
crossing the road ahead of her. Obviously it wasn’t traffic you had to watch
out for in these parts, but animals who had no respect for who had the right of
way.

The cows, or whatever they called them in Big Sky
Country, weren’t in a hurry to go wherever it was they were heading. One
stopped, turned her way, looked at her through the windshield and then simply
moved on. A border collie suddenly ran up behind them, snapping at a few of the
cows’ legs as he hurried them on their way.

Yeah, that’s it little guy move them off the road.
Lacey blew into her hands again, and out of the corner of her eye, saw three
guys dressed in full cowboy attire riding horses, heading up behind the cattle.

Two of them went ahead and crossed the road with the
cattle while the third one circled the one remaining cow and coaxed it to join
his buddies. The cowboy crossed the road just a few feet from the front of her
car.
 
Shit, he was gorgeous, dark brown
hair, curling out from under his hat, muscular looking legs…

He suddenly pulled on the reins of the horse
stopping it right in front of her left headlight. He put his hand up to his hat,
nodded, winked at her, and then he moved to the other side of the road as if he
had all day to do it. She watched as he slowly rode away from the car.

Great looking
butt
too.

Without warning, he turned around and gave her one
last glance. It was almost as if he knew she was admiring his ass.

Lacey sat spellbound, unable to take her eyes off
him as he went up the hill and then disappeared out of sight. She’d just seen
her first cowboy up close and in person.

If they all looked like that she’d get her share of
eye candy.

She hit the accelerator, reminding herself that she
was here to start a new life. One of which didn’t include men.

****

Shane rubbed his hands together as he walked through
the doors of the sheriff’s office. Outside it smelled and felt like snow was on
its way. He poured himself a mug of coffee and carried it into his office. He
sat at his desk, put his feet up on top, leaned back, and skimmed through
today’s mail.

Some literature about upcoming seminars given by the
Montana Sheriff’s Association, and a thank you note from Mrs. Nolan for his
help getting her back into her car. There were also a few responses to the ad
he’d placed for an office assistant/trainee deputy. He skimmed through them.
Getting people to come live in such a small community was tough, but he knew
the right person was out there. And he still had another couple of months before
Mike, his current deputy, retired.
Plenty of time to find a
suitable candidate.

“How many times have I told you about putting your
dirty cowboy boots where I’ve just cleaned?”

Ruth pushed his feet off the recently polished wood,
almost sending him flying off his chair. Sometimes she forgot who the real boss
was around here, but where Ruth was concerned that was perfectly okay with him.

“Did you and your brothers manage to get all the
cattle moved?” she asked.

Shane took a sip of his coffee before answering. “Sure
did, and it was the perfect morning for it.”

“I don’t suppose Rory or Flynn is looking for another
dog, are they? My daughter’s Lab just had another litter, and there’s one left.”

“I can ask, but even if they’re not, I might like to
take a look.”

“And what happens to it when you’re working all
hours of the day, and sometimes night?”

“Then I’ll have to bring him to work and make him my
deputy.”

Shane put the mail down in front of him.
“Doesn’t look like there’s much promise in this bunch of
applicants.”

“Before I forget, someone did call about the job
this morning and asked if it was okay to stop by for an interview, around
mid-morning?”

“Fine with me.
When
they arrive, show them straight back to my office.”

Ruth walked toward the door but then turned back. “Did
I happen to mention it was a female applicant?”

****

Lacey pulled her car up in front of what looked an
office building. Back home the police department took up one whole block. The
sheriff’s receptionist had told her to come in the front door and head up the
stairs to the second floor, and the office would be directly in front of her.

She grabbed her purse and got out of the car, locked
it, and then pulled the collar of her coat up close to her ears as she headed
toward the door. A raw wind blew and took her hair into the air, temporally
blinding her and almost causing her to walk into the building’s glass door. A
few flakes of snow circled around her as she brushed her bangs back into place.
She opened the door, rushed inside, and was happy to be out of the cold. Clapping
her hands together, she made her way up the stairs. Just as the receptionist
had assured her, the Timber Creek Valley Sheriff’s office sat across the
hallway.

The wooden floor creaked as she headed toward the
office. The glass paneled door was open, so she stepped inside and saw a thin
faced woman, probably in her early sixties, sitting at a desk. She looked up
and smiled when she saw Lacey.

BOOK: Shane
6.95Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Pressure by Brian Keene
Flick by Tarttelin,Abigail
Isolation by Dan Wells
Bent Arrow by Posy Roberts
Madwand (Illustrated) by Roger Zelazny