Travis stared at Beth Ann, and his heart clenched. Janice had had a way about her that could cut straight through an argument and silence him as no one else had ever done. The look that spoke a hundred words without uttering a one of them. The thick blond hair, the gentle laugh, and the narrowed, disapproving look. Everything about the bundle-size youngster reminded Travis of his petite sister-in-law.

“Mom used to say ‘yogurt’ instead,” Beth Ann announced, her eyes a soft cornflower blue. Hell, she probably would if it were possible. The kid made it sound as though his sister-in-law would leap straight out of the grave to reprimand him. “Mommy wouldn’t like you saying the ‘s’ word,” Beth Ann announced each and every time the four-letter word slipped from his mouth. The worst of it was that according to five-year-old Beth Ann and the two boys, Jim and Scotty, he wasn’t doing any of those jobs worth a damn. All he seemed to do was cook, wash clothes, and read bedtime stories. He might as well forget thirty-six years of ranch life and take up being a full-time mother. It had been two months since his brother and sister-in-law’s funeral, and he’d barely stepped outside the ranch house since he’d been appointed the guardian of their three children. He paled beneath the weathered, sun-beaten tan. He slammed his Stetson back on his head, shoving it down so far it shadowed the starkly etched planes of his jaw and cheekbones. “A wife.” The word went through Travis like a bullet, and he soared to his feet. “Get behind me,” Travis instructed, doing his best to jockey…

Mary stood naked in front of the fog-smudged bathroom mirror… Logan slipped into the booth at Martha’s and waited. Logan was waiting for Tilly inside her apartment when she… Mary couldn’t recall a time she’d been more outraged. I want to go on the hammer,” Scotty said excitedly… Mary’s sewing machine had recently arrived and she’d set it… The last thing Travis expected when he walked into the… The first rays of dawn banked the horizon as Travis… Mary was so outraged that she could hardly think. Travis impatiently paced the living room, glancing at his watch… It was the only word Travis could think to… The afternoon Travis’s letter arrived was incredible.

The twenty first wish debbie macomber