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Her Second Forever




  A new love to have and to hold?

  The car accident that left her permanently injured only made Lee Macbeth more determined to help others with disabilities. But the charming cowboy doing a stint of community service at her therapeutic riding facility wants more from the self-sufficient widow. Despite their powerful mutual attraction, Lee can’t risk falling for Mr. Totally Wrong. Or is Colton Brand more of a stand-up guy than he appears?

  “It seems like you and I have been living our lives with just one degree of separation. It’s kind of surprising that the two of us haven’t run into each other before.”

  Lee didn’t respond, smoothing her hands over the file. It didn’t surprise her in the least that they hadn’t crossed paths. In her experience, young cowboys like Colt weren’t focused on serving others; they were focused on serving themselves and their whims—bouncing from rodeos to line dancing at the bars to hunting and fishing and then back again. It wasn’t necessarily a harsh judgment against him—it was just the observable truth of the stark differences in their lives. She didn’t spend her time at rodeos or line dancing in the downtown Bozeman bars. She wanted her life to have more purpose than just drifting from one amusement to the next.

  “Now I wish I had paid this place a little more attention.” Colt’s eyes fastened on her face in a way that made her self-conscious enough to reach for her locket with a free hand.

  “Well.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “You’re here now.”

  * * *

  THE BRANDS OF MONTANA:

  Wrangling their own happily-ever-afters

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for choosing Her Second Forever, the thirteenth Special Edition book featuring the Brand family.

  Her Second Forever is a tender, emotional romance featuring Colton Brand and Lee Macbeth. Colt Brand is a good-time cowboy whose luck has suddenly run out. Arrested for operating a conveyance while intoxicated, Colt finds himself working off his community service at a facility that provides equine therapy for kids with disabilities.

  On his first day at Strides of Strength, the completely unexpected happens: Colt falls in love at first sight with the owner, Lee Macbeth. Never once in Colt’s life has he considered helping others a priority. But it doesn’t take long for Colt to realize that in order to win Lee’s heart, he is going to have to shed his bad boy cowboy image and embrace the man he has always known he could be.

  Lee Macbeth is a phoenix rising from the ashes of her own life. When bad boy Colt Brand shows up on the property to work off his community service, Lee is shocked to discover that she isn’t immune to the handsome cowboy’s charm. Not only is Colt capable of mending the broken fences at Strides of Strength, Lee soon realizes that he is the one man who is capable of mending her broken heart.

  As always, I invite you to visit my website, www.joannasimsromance.com.

  Happy reading!

  Joanna

  Her Second Forever

  Joanna Sims

  Joanna Sims is proud to pen contemporary romance for Harlequin Special Edition. Joanna’s series, The Brands of Montana, features hardworking characters with hometown values. You are cordially invited to join the Brands of Montana as they wrangle their own happily-ever-afters. And, as always, Joanna welcomes you to visit her at her website, joannasimsromance.com.

  Books by Joanna Sims

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Brands of Montana

  A Match Made in Montana

  High Country Christmas

  High Country Baby

  Meet Me at the Chapel

  Thankful for You

  A Wedding to Remember

  A Bride for Liam Brand

  High Country Cowgirl

  The Sergeant’s Christmas Mission

  The Montana Mavericks: Six Brides for Six Brothers

  The Maverick’s Wedding Wager

  A Baby for Christmas

  The One He’s Been Looking For

  Marry Me, Mackenzie!

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Dedicated to the real Lee Macbeth... It’s the excitement of hearing about fans like you that keeps me writing. I hope you enjoy this one too, Lady Macbeth!

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Excerpt from Starting Over in Wickham Falls by Rochelle Alers

  Prologue

  “Mack.”

  Cowboy Colt Brand’s head bobbed up and down as the bright Montana morning sun beat down on his bare arms.

  “Hey, Mack!” Colt raised his voice a notch higher, thinking that his companion couldn’t hear him. “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A miniature horse, an alpaca and a giraffe all walk into a bar. The bartender asks, what can I get you fellas to drink—” Colt paused to chuckle to himself before he continued “—and the alpaca said...”

  Colt squinted and looked up to the left as if the sky would hold the words he was searching for in his mind. “Well, shoot, Mack! I forgot what the heck the alpaca said.”

  A quick siren behind him made Colt glance over his shoulder. Colt swore at the unwanted interruption, but wanted to reassure his companion. “Just keep calm and let me do the talking, Mack. I’ve been to this police-harassment rodeo before.”

  “Colt!” The police officer had pulled up beside him and had rolled down the window to his squad car. “Where in blazes are you goin’?”

  “Home to Sugar Creek Ranch.” Colt flung his hand forward toward the horizon.

  “You’re headin’ the wrong way.” The police officer who also happened to be a longtime friend yelled, “Pull over!”

  “Tell me one thing I’m doin’ wrong, Jimmy! Just name it!”

  “Just pull over,” the officer snapped.

  Grudgingly, Colt followed the order and pulled over to the side of the road. He sighed in frustration while he waited for Jimmy to park his squad car behind him. On his way out of the car, Colt heard Jimmy say into the radio pinned to his uniform, “Tell Chief I found him.”

  Hands on his hips, his eyes hidden behind his mirrored sunglasses, Jimmy stood on the side of the road and frowned at him. “Darn it, Colt. I’ve got a heck of a lot better things to do with my time than chasing you all over God’s creation! I done told you not to get caught drivin’ under the influence again, didn’t I?”

  “I wasn’t driving! He was.” Colt pointed to Mack.

  “You’ve already been warned time and again that you can’t operate a conveyance under the influence—not a tractor, not a lawn mower, not a snowmobile and not even if that conveyance has four legs!” Jimmy pointed to Mack. “Riding that there horse drunk on this here highway ain’t no different than driving a car drunk.”

  “How can you say that I was driving when I didn’t even have my hands on the reins?” Colt had been resting his hands on the saddle horn. He held up his hands in the air for his friend to see while Mack dropped his head down to nibble a blade of grass pushing through the asphalt.

  “That don’t make it no better, Colt. And who’s horse is this? Did you steal this horse?”


  “I won him fair and square in a poker game and now I’m taking him home,” Colt mumbled, his head bobbing downward. He sure was tired.

  “I’m sorry, friend, but I’m going to have to take you in this time.”

  “Come on!” Colt grumbled. “How will Mack get home?”

  “I already put in a call to your brother Gabe to bring the horse trailer.” Jimmy dropped his chin and looked at him over the brim of his sunglasses with somber eyes. “Now, I promise you that this don’t give me no pleasure. I can’t let you off with a warning this time. I’ve got my orders. So climb down off of that horse—I’ve got to arrest you.”

  Chapter One

  “Welcome. I’m Gilda.” A slender woman with closely cropped honey-colored hair and a German accent greeted Colt at the door of the room. Life had taken a sharp left turn for Colt after his arrest and now he found himself on a Monday morning at the Strides of Strength Therapeutic Riding Center, a place where they provided equine-assisted activities and therapy for kids with disabilities.

  “Guten Tag.” He raised two fingers to the brim of his dusty cowboy hat and gave her a quick salute.

  “Please—” she gestured to the table behind her “—fill out a name tag and sit anywhere you like. Help yourself to the coffee. Lee will arrive shortly.”

  Colt scrawled his name on a tag, peeled it off and slapped it onto his hat. The classroom, newly constructed and still smelling faintly of fresh paint, occupied one half of an eight-stall barn. Across the aisle, and through the large picture window, there was an unobstructed view of two draft horses sleeping with their heads hanging over their stall gates. If he weren’t feeling so bitter, he might have been able to appreciate the craftsmanship in the classroom design, with its tall pitched roof, hand-carved tables long enough to sit several people and the screened-in porch off the back door that afforded sweeping views of the pastureland and snowcapped Montana mountains far off in the distance. But he was bitter. All he did was borrow a friend’s horse to get home after a very lucrative night of poker. Next thing he knew, he was being hauled in for driving under the influence! He’d paid a hefty fine, was sentenced to unsupervised probation for six months and three months of community service. Now he was relegated to a summer of taking a bunch of kids for pony rides when he could be spending his time doing real ranch work at his family’s cattle spread, Sugar Creek, or traveling to rodeos with his friends.

  Colt pulled out a chair, dragging it noisily across the polished concrete floor and sat down at the back table. Not bothering to take off his hat as he was raised to do, he slumped down, put his dirt-caked boots on top of the table and yanked the brim of his hat over his eyes. As soon as this little “orientation” waste-of-his-time was over, the quicker he could get the heck out of this place. The less time he spent on this island of misfit toys, the better.

  * * *

  Occupational Therapist Lee Macbeth leaned with her back against barn, out of view of the classroom windows. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply several times, always feeling a bit nervous before she spoke in front of a group of new people. It was always the same, no matter the size of the crowd—first came the horrible butterflies in her stomach followed by an outbreak of sweat on her face, hairline and neck and then finally, her heart racing in her chest like she was about to jump out of a plane without a parachute. It never got any easier, even after ten years of volunteer orientations and traveling the world as a motivational speaker. But somehow, she always managed to pull herself together and get the job done.

  Lee opened the round polished yellow-gold necklace she wore on a long chain around her neck and stared at the picture tucked inside. “Here we go.”

  She clicked the locket shut and pushed away from the wall. She pulled down the edges of her Strides of Strength logoed red polo over her snugly fit dark blue jeans and rolled her shoulders back. Right before she walked into the classroom, she pushed her softly layered, loose mahogany hair back from her face, lifted her chin slightly, pasted a welcoming smile on her face and then pulled the door open.

  “Hello, volunteers!” She waltzed through the door waving both of her hands enthusiastically, always relieved to see that the volunteers who had signed up to join the summer program actually showed on orientation day. “Welcome to summer orientation! We are so happy to have you with us!”

  Lee took her spot behind the podium, her brain quickly tallying the number of warm bodies in the space. Only ten—or eleven if she counted the bored cowboy in the back of the classroom with his filthy boots dirtying up her tables, which had been carved and hand-stained to her specification from trees harvested from the property. She read the name tag slapped haphazardly on his cowboy hat but Lee already knew who the cowboy was—she had just looked at his file this morning. Colt hadn’t bothered to look up or return her greeting.

  So, ten volunteers and one pain in the hind end.

  It was a much smaller crowd than she had hoped for. The summer program, which started in two short weeks, depended heavily on volunteers. With the larger than average number of clients signed up this year, it was going to be a challenge to serve the needs of all the riders and horses. The ten volunteers, as usual, were female, all in their early to mid-twenties with lineless skin on their faces and the eagerness of unencumbered youth in their eyes. She was set to turn thirty-five this year—twenty-five seemed like two lifetimes ago.

  “Thank you so much for your interest in the Strides of Strength summer program.” Lee did her best to ignore the cowboy, focusing her smile and energy on the volunteers who were giving her their undivided attention. “You have no idea what your time and effort will mean to the children who spend their summer with us. We aren’t just providing therapy for children with disabilities—we are building self-esteem, self-confidence and memories that will last for the rest of their lives. What you do here this summer truly matters.”

  Soon after she began to interact with the new crop of volunteers, Lee’s nerves slipped away as she moved through her standard orientation routine. First, she showed the group a PowerPoint presentation and then spent the rest of the session answering questions. Even though the volunteer pool was smaller than she would have liked, they were an enthusiastic bunch made up mainly of graduate students earning degrees in occupational therapy, physical therapy or speech language pathology. What these women lacked in numbers, Lee was certain they would make up for it in energy and dedication. Colt, on the other hand, who had hardly moved a muscle, was going to prove to be a regrettable thorn in her side.

  Why did I let Judge Ackredge talk me into this? She had never let anyone work off community service at Strides of Strength. But Judge Ackredge was a dear friend and he had called in a favor.

  “It’s going to be a sincerely rewarding summer for all of you. And, when you see how much this program means to our kiddos, I promise the exhaustion will be well worth it.” Lee tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and as it always did when she talked about the kids, she felt a swell of emotion bring unshed tears to her eyes. Her hand came up to clutch her locket—it seemed to give her strength or steady her emotions when she needed it the most. “Volunteers are our lifeblood and we are so grateful to have you here with us. We depend so much on the kindness of our community and there is so much need here. We ask that if you know of anyone who can donate materials or skilled services, please think of us. Lord knows there’s always a fence to mend...”

  Without looking up, Colt raised his hand.

  Lee fought the urge to frown. “Sir? Do you have a question?”

  With one finger, Colt pushed the brim of his hat upward so his face and eyes were exposed. For the briefest of moments, she was captive to his brilliant deeply set sapphire-blue eyes. Lee was struck by what she saw in those eyes in a way she hadn’t expected. Her hand tightened on the locket and she had to take a step backward to break the eye contact first.

  “I can mend a fence,”
Colt said with a baritone drawl that touched off a pleasure zone in her brain.

  “Wonderful. I’ll take you up on that.” She nodded quickly, fiddling with papers on her podium, unnerved by the way his gravelly voice had made her pulse quicken. Colt had that deep roughness in his voice that was sweet music to the female reptilian brain.

  Lee forced her attention back to the graduate students, but none of them were looking at her. All the young women were turned in their seats, giving their undivided attention to the cowboy. And why wouldn’t they? The tenor of his voice seemed designed specifically to grab the focus of the female ear. He also had golden-tanned skin, raven-black hair that brushed across his broad shoulders, a strong chin covered in stubble and those striking blue eyes. This fox in the henhouse was going to be a problem—for all them.

  “There are also fans to be installed in the barns,” she continued. “So if any of you know an electrician who is willing to volunteer their time...”

  Colt raised two fingers in the air. He had finally taken his boots off her new table. He was sitting forward with his arms on the tabletop, his eyes seemingly glued to her face. “I can do that. Easy fix.”

  It was absolutely unheard of that her mouth would suddenly lose the ability to move—she could always talk a mile a minute about any subject just about any time. And yet, here she was, temporarily dumbfounded. Lee gave him a quick nod and swallowed several times before she continued. His sudden interest in what she was saying was just as disturbing to her as when he had appeared to be completely ignoring her. Either way, he was an unwanted distraction.

  “And we do have some plumbing needs so if you...”

  Up went Colt’s hand again.

  “I know a thing or two about plumbing.”

  Lee tucked another strand of hair behind her ear, a bit of a nervous tick at times, annoyed that she could feel a blush on her cheeks. She met good-looking men all the time in her travels—and some had very sexy accents. Why was this good-looking man making her feel flustered?