Free A Home in Hill Country (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Roxanne Rustand

the main barns and house at the Four Aces.
    With luck, they might see someone across the fence and strike up a casual conversation. A ranch hand who’d worked with her father would be perfect, because Clint had made it clear enough that she wasn’t welcome on his ranch, or near his precious son.
    “This is just like in the movies,” Cody breathed. “I bet there were cowboys and Indians here once.”
    “There still are,” she said dryly.
    Cody rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, like the Old West. Can we gallop?”
    “Western horses lope. But no, I think we need to work more on jogging first. I’ll jog, and you see if you can make Rebel jog, too. Just squeeze with your lower legs and click your tongue at him if he doesn’t go.”
    Boots moved into a nice slow jog with the barest pressure of her calves. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Rebel still plodding along half asleep. “Well, try nudging him with both heels, then…okay, now try again, harder.”
    Rebel belatedly lifted his head and must’ve realized he was being left behind. He sped up into a rough, fast trot, with Cody hanging on to the horn and laughing as he bounced haphazardly in the saddle. Once they caught up, the old gelding slowed to match Boots’s speed.
    “I did good, right? I stayed on, and I made him go!”
    It had likely been herd instinct rather than boy power that launched the horse briefly into second gear, but Kristin just gave Cody an encouraging smile. “You’re getting better every day.”
    They followed the fence line, winding through stands of cedar and live oak, over sandy, pebbled ground and several grassy, low-lying meadows. Rocky crags jutted out of the hillsides, and at thetop of each rise, the beauty of the rolling land made her wish she were good with watercolors.
    Her hope of seeing someone from the neighboring ranch faded when they reached a tumbledown line shack in a hollow several miles from home. A glance at her watch told her it was time to head back.
    “Cool! Can we explore it?” Cody leaned out of his saddle to peer at the broken timbers and sagging walls. “No.” Visions of rattlesnakes and scorpions hiding there made her speak too sharply. “Stay on your horse, Cody!”
    Startled, Cody twisted around to look at her. With a cry he lost his balance and slid into a heap on the ground at his horse’s feet. “Ouch!” he yelped, jerked his hand back. “Stickers!”
    Rebel promptly lowered his head and nibbled at dry tufts of grass, apparently unfazed by the fall, and grateful for any opportunity to graze.
    Dismounting, Kristin tied Boots to a nearby cedar tree, then eased over to grab Rebel’s reins. She hunkered down next to Cody. “Are you okay, honey?”
    “No! Look.” His lower lip trembling, he held up a hand festooned with a haze of fine, nearly invisible cactus spines. “They burn—really bad.” He lifted his tear-filled gaze up to his saddle. “How am I gonna get back up there?”
    “No worries, sweetie. I’ll lift you up, so you don’t need to pull yourself up with that hand. I’m sure Rebel will just follow Boots home so you won’t have to guide him at all.”
    “But it hurts. ”
    It certainly wasn’t going to be a fun trip home for him, even with his horse on autopilot. By the time they reached home each little cactus spine would have inflamed the skin around it, making the removal with tweezers even more painful.
    “I know it hurts, sweetie. Here let me help you stand up.” Hooking the joint of her elbow under his other arm, she hoisted him to his feet. “Now, let me—”
    At a movement along the cedar-crested ridge to the west she fell silent, her pulse tripping. There shouldn’t be any large predators out here—nothing more than coyotes—but she’d glimpsed something larger. A horse?
    “What’s wrong, Mom? What do you see?” His voice tinged with panic, Cody grabbed her arm with his good hand.
    A second later she breathed a sigh of relief as a horse and rider