With Family In Mind (Saddle Falls Book 1) Read online

  Jake Ryan! The rush of emotions that came with recognition stunned Rebecca.

  It had been so long since she’d allowed herself the luxury of any feelings.

  First came anger, resentment, then relief that he hadn’t recognized her—that, for the moment at least, she was safe. But her relief was tinged with fear…and something else.

  Rebecca struggled to swallow her emotions, to put them back in their guarded place deep inside her heart.

  She’d have to be very careful, she realized, taking a deep breath to get her rampaging sensations under control. She couldn’t afford any mistakes. Not now. What she had to do here in Saddle Falls was far too important….

  Forcibly shaking off her shocking physical response to Jake, she managed a cool smile, met his gaze and shook his hand. “How do you do, Mr. Ryan?”

  Dear Reader,

  Do I have a sweet lineup for you—just in time for Valentine’s Day! What’s more enticing than a box of chocolates? The answer lies in the next story, Cordina’s Crown Jewel, from New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts’s CORDINA’S ROYAL FAMILY series. This gem features a princess who runs away from royal responsibility and straight into the arms of the most unlikely man of her dreams!

  Another Valentine treat is Jackie Merritt’s Marked for Marriage, which is part of the popular MONTANA MAVERICKS series. Here, a feisty bronco-busting beauty must sit still so that a handsome doctor can give her a healthy dose of love. And if it’s heart-thumping emotion you want, Peggy Webb continues THE WESTMORELAND DIARIES series with Bittersweet Passion, a heavenly opposites-attract romance between a singing sensation and a very handsome minister hero.

  In With Family in Mind, Sharon De Vita launches her gripping SADDLE FALLS miniseries. One Valentine’s Day, this newlywed author admits, she wrote a heartwarming love poem to her husband about their first year together! Our next family tale is Sun-Kissed Baby, by Patricia Hagan—a darling tale of a new single mom who falls for the man she thinks is her little boy’s father. This talented author shares her Valentine’s Day dinner tradition with us—making “a heart-shaped meatloaf” and at the end of the pink meal, “a heart-shaped ice cream cake, frosted with strawberry whipped cream.” The icing on the cake this month is Leigh Greenwood’s Undercover Honeymoon, a passionate tale of two reunited lovers who join forces to stay ahead of a deadly enemy and care for an orphaned little girl.

  Make sure that you sample every Special Edition delight this month has to offer. I wish you and your loved ones a warm and rose-filled Valentine’s Day (and that box of chocolates, too)!

  Best,

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  With Family in Mind

  SHARON DE VITA

  The courage of a man is not measured by how he handles life,

  but how he handles death. This book is dedicated

  in loving memory of Glen Douglas Cushing.

  For your remarkable courage in life and in death.

  For the dignity you held close even as life slipped away.

  For the generosity of your heart for all those you loved.

  For the joyous memories that will forever remain with those you left

  behind. The sun dimmed a bit the day you left, but the angels

  rejoiced, welcoming one of their own…home.

  Books by Sharon De Vita

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Child of Midnight #1013

  *The Lone Ranger #1078

  *The Lady and the Sheriff #1103

  *All It Takes Is Family #1126

  † The Marriage Basket #1307

  † The Marriage Promise #1313

  ††With Family in Mind #1450

  Silhouette Books

  The Coltons

  I Married a Sheik

  Silhouette Romance

  Heavenly Match #475

  Lady and the Legend #498

  Kane and Mabel #545

  Baby Makes Three #573

  Sherlock’s Home #593

  Italian Knights #610

  Sweet Adeline #693

  **On Baby Patrol #1276

  **Baby with a Badge #1298

  **Baby and the Officer #1316

  †The Marriage Badge #1443

  SHARON DE VITA,

  a former adjunct professor of literature and communications, is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. Her first novel won a national writing competition for Best Unpublished Romance Novel of 1985. This award-winning book, Heavenly Match, was subsequently published by Silhouette in 1985. Sharon has over two million copies of her novels in print, and her professional credentials have earned her a place in Who’s Who in American Authors, Editors and Poets as well as the International Who’s Who of Authors. In 1987 Sharon was the proud recipient of the Romantic Times Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Writing.

  A newlywed, Sharon met her husband while doing research for one of her books. The widowed, recently retired military officer was so wonderful, Sharon decided to marry him after she interviewed him! Sharon and her new husband have seven grown children, five grandchildren, and currently reside in Arizona.

  Dear Readers,

  I have a confession to make: men fascinate me! I absolutely love delving into the special relationships between men. Each relationship is different and unique based on the man in question, but no male relationship is more special than the relationship between brothers. No matter how many years separate them, brothers seem to have a distinct bond that transcends time or space.

  I wanted to explore this bond with four extraordinary brothers: the Ryan family of Saddle Falls. A strong, intensely devoted family—headed by their patriarchal grandfather, Tommy Ryan, an Irish immigrant who believes in family above all else—they are special because one of the brothers, the youngest, Jesse, was kidnapped from his own home as a young child. Jesse’s kidnapping has a profound effect on the lives as well as the relationships of his remaining brothers—Jake, Jared and Josh.

  I hate to admit I fell in love with the Ryan men. Each one was different and special in his own way, and the way he dealt with his grief and guilt. It was fun for me to explore the many facets of each man and then watch as their protective shells melted with the love and devotion of the “right” woman. Writing this series made me laugh—the antics of Jared’s mischievous five-year-old twin sons will do it every time—and made me cry for the love and loss that this one family endured. But it also gave me something else: a profound belief in the ultimate healing power of love. And family.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Saddle Falls, Nevada

  She’d come home to bury her mother.

  Even though Rebecca St. John hadn’t seen her mother in almost twenty years, she felt it only fitting that she give the woman a proper burial.

  Shivering suddenly, Rebecca sat up in bed, blinking in the darkness of the unfamiliar hotel room, trying to shake off the remnants of a nightmare—the same nightmare that had haunted her since the last time she had seen her mother.

  She’d been seven years old.

  It had been a blisteringly hot August morning when her mother had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Jesse Ryan, the youngest of the four Ryan brothers, grandsons of Tommy Ryan, the most prominent rancher
in the state.

  With a sigh, Rebecca closed her eyes, dragged her long black hair off her face, then flicked on the bedside lamp, rubbing her throbbing temple.

  She hadn’t had these nightmares in years, nightmares that brought on ferocious headaches. Probably because it had been years since she’d allowed herself to think about her childhood.

  Or her mother.

  With a weary sigh, Rebecca scooped her small clutch purse off the nightstand and dug out the bottle of aspirin. After tossing back two tablets with a long sip of water, she pulled the covers up to ward off a shiver, then leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes with another sigh.

  She’d always believed in facing her fears head-on. Because so much of her early life had involved lies and half-truths, she firmly believed that only by facing her fears and her demons could she conquer them.

  Which was why she’d come back to Saddle Falls.

  It was time to confront the past, time to finally learn the truth about what had happened twenty years ago. Time to finally put her shameful past behind her.

  The truth.

  About her mother.

  About what had really happened the night of little Jesse Ryan’s disappearance.

  Truth was Rebecca’s professional stock-in-trade.

  As an investigative reporter, she honored truth above all else. Dug for it when others gave up. Kept at it long after others had quit, no matter how ugly, how insidious, how shocking. She did whatever was necessary to get to the truth.

  She was good at her job, and had a wall of plaques and awards to prove it. Good because she never allowed herself to become emotionally involved. Deliberately cool and dispassionate, distant both personally and professionally, she’d trained herself to be that way out of pure necessity.

  Perhaps because so many people in her young life had hurt and betrayed her—including the mother, who should have loved and protected her, but instead had recklessly abandoned her—Rebecca had learned never to trust anyone.

  People were fallible, emotions unreliable. But the truth was tangible, something neither emotions nor people could change.

  Shifting her weight, Rebecca tightened her fingers on the duvet, pulling it up to her chin as she glanced around the room. Saddle Falls had grown and changed since she’d lived here. Actually, the year she’d spent in Saddle Falls before her mother’s abandonment had been the happiest of her young life.

  Her mother had been barely seventeen when Rebecca was born. Her mom’s family had already disowned their wild, wayward daughter, and since Rebecca had never known her father, she’d been left to the mercy of a rebellious teenager who had been little more than a child herself. Hardly fit or responsible enough to love or care for a helpless baby.

  By the time Rebecca turned seven, they’d moved sixteen times, living in one tiny apartment or trailer after another. Stability wasn’t a word her mother was familiar with.

  Miraculously, the year Rebecca turned seven, they’d landed in Saddle Falls, Nevada. Her mother had been hired as a nanny for the four young Ryan brothers. As part of her compensation, they’d been given the small carriage house on the northernmost border of the sprawling Ryan ranch to live in.

  It was small, only four spartan rooms, but to Rebecca it had seemed like a palace. It was the first real home she’d ever known, and she loved it. But then one night the youngest of the four Ryan boys, Jesse, had disappeared while in her mother’s care.

  His parents and grandfather had been out for the evening, and his three older brothers were at a sleepover at a neighbor’s, leaving little Jesse alone with Rebecca’s mother. Sometime during the night he simply vanished without a trace.

  Jesse Ryan had never been seen again.

  And Rebecca’s life had never been the same.

  The next morning, the Saddle Falls police had taken her mother in for questioning, while Rebecca had been scooped up into the care of Social Services.

  Even though her mother was released after a few hours, that was the last time Rebecca had ever seen or heard from her mom. If the woman knew of her daughter’s whereabouts in the ensuing years, she’d never made any attempt to contact her or reunite with her.

  Her mother may have forgotten about her, but Rebecca had never forgotten her mom, had never stopped wondering what had happened to her.

  She had no idea until three days ago, when an anonymous letter arrived at the newspaper office where she worked, informing her of her mother’s death. The woman had apparently come back to Saddle Falls sometime in the past six months.

  And Rebecca had no idea why. Nor any idea where her mother had been during the past twenty years. But she was determined to find out, determined to discover the truth about what had happened to Jesse Ryan on that night twenty years ago. Determined to find out the truth about her mom’s involvement. And just as determined to find out who had sent her the anonymous letter.

  And so she’d come back to Saddle Falls to bury her mother and say a final goodbye to a woman she’d never really known.

  It was time. Time to put to rest the ghosts that had haunted her for twenty years; time to finally bury the demons she’d carried around like a heavy knapsack.

  Stifling a yawn, Rebecca turned off the bedside lamp, then closed her eyes, willing the pain and the nightmares away.

  She only hoped that she could live with the truth once she found it.

  Chapter One

  There was no reason to be nervous, Rebecca told herself as she climbed out of her car and smoothed a damp hand down her jeans. She was here on legitimate business.

  But she hadn’t been back to Ryan’s Creek in almost twenty years, and as she approached the double wooden doors of the sprawling main ranch house, she glanced around.

  The ranch covered almost five thousand acres of land dotted with a various assortment of trees, shrubs and wildflowers. Lack of rain, always a problem in this desert oasis had left parts of the land scorched a mangy brown.

  Separating the ranch from its nearest neighbor was a low creek that ran the length of the land, ending in a small, but enchanting waterfall near the back of the property. Hence, the ranch’s name: Ryan’s Creek. In addition to the main ranch house, numerous other buildings were spread out across the property. A four room coach house, stables, a barn, a henhouse as well as numerous two-story buildings that housed the ranch hands who both lived and worked on the ranch. In the distance, when clouds didn’t shadow the skyline, the tip of Mt. Charleston could be seen soaring above the land like a majestic eagle.

  Rebecca had never actually walked or ridden the entire length and breadth of the ranch so she wasn’t certain of exactly how many other structures were there, but she knew it was more than enough to accommodate the numerous people it took to keep Ryan’s Creek running smoothly and efficiently, with more than enough room left over for the Ryans to build any other accommodations as needed.

  Approaching the large double wood front doors now, nerves got the best of Rebecca. Her hand trembled as she rang the doorbell.

  The answering sound had her backing up a step in her strappy sandals.

  There was a loud crash, a couple of high-pitched whoops and then the sounds of stomping feet, not to mention the ferocious yelps of what sounded like a very large dog.

  Or a very sick horse.

  She was just about to turn tail and bolt back to her car when the front door was yanked open.

  “Thank God.” The man reached for her arm and dragged her inside, slamming the door behind her. “Reinforcements,” he said.

  More stunned than frightened, Rebecca couldn’t speak so she merely stared.

  With his tall frame, wide shoulders, frayed jeans and plaid chambray shirt, the man probably could pass for normal—normal, that is, if she didn’t take into account the fact that he was wearing a catcher’s mask over his face, which concealed his identity. He was also carrying a child’s giant water-pumper squirt gun in a screaming shade of neon-green in his rather large, rough-hewn hands.


  His shirt was soaking wet, as was his sleek black hair, which also happened to be standing on end as if he’d just seen a ghost.

  “They’ve got me outnumbered,” he said in a voice she could only describe as desperate.

  “Outnumbered?” Rebecca looked at him carefully, not certain if he was dangerous.

  “Definitely. I sure hope you’ve got a lot of experience with…exuberant kids or deranged.”

  “K-kids?” Rebecca’s stomach rolled at the thought.

  “Never mind. Here they come.” He gave her a helpless shrug. “Duck,” he yelled, just as a stream of water pelted her right between her breasts, soaking the maroon silk blouse she’d just paid a hundred dollars for.

  “Gotcha, we gotcha.” Two small whirling dervishes with matching mops of black hair and freckles, identical jeans and T-shirts—one blue, one green— came racing into the foyer. They were followed by a large, lumbering mop of fur that slipped and slid across the sparkling marble foyer, barking and racing around the boys in circles, collapsing every couple of steps and then scrambling back up to his feet.

  “Yeah, we gotcha.” The dervishes were whirling in circles, high-fiving each other and giggling. “We win. We win!”

  “Time out,” the man yelled over the din, slipping off the catcher’s mask as one of the boys let loose another pelting stream of water, this time hitting him right in the mouth.

  Sputtering and wiping water from his face, the man stepped in front of Rebecca to protect her from the whirlwinds, the dog and a potential drowning.

  “Time out,” he yelled again, dragging his wet hand down his jeans.

  Stunned, Rebecca merely stared. From the research she’d done the past two days, she surmised these little boys who looked like they were about to bounce out of their tennis shoes in glee had to be Jared Ryan’s adopted five-year-old twin sons, Timmy and Terry. Jared was the second oldest of the Ryan brothers, she remembered, smiling at the boys. They were undeniably adorable.