“The ranch work, the cattle, the riding... This is what I left the Amish world for.”

  “And the other freedoms...right?” Wilder asked.

  “This was the freedom I wanted,” Sue said. “To be a cattlewoman.”

  Wilder paused, surprised. “Driving cars, watching TV, flicking on a light?”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to give those up, either,” she said. “But I don’t want to just go back to town, get a job in a grocery store, and...live my life. I got a taste of the work I really love, but having a baby in the mix isn’t going to be easy.”

  “I wish I could keep you on after my brother gets back,” he said.

  She smiled faintly. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine. When I’m a mother, everything will be different. It won’t be all about what I want anymore—it will be about my child. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

  “What if you stayed here with me?”

  Dear Reader,

  Strong mothers raise strong daughters—it’s the way the world works. My mother and I are both strong women, and it’s a beautiful thing. But strong women sometimes end up on opposite ends of an issue.

  In this book I wanted to look at mothers and daughters and how love overcomes in those precious relationships, too. Love is always stronger than whatever differences or disagreements might come up.

  If you enjoy this book, I hope you’ll come find me on my website at patriciajohns.com or on social media. I also invite you to sign up for my monthly newsletter, which has giveaways and provides a little glimpse into this writer’s world.

  If you check out my book page on my website, you’ll see that I have a pretty lengthy backlist. If you like cowboys, Amish or even small-town stories, I have something for you. You never know—you might find your next read!

  Patricia Johns

  A Cowboy in Amish Country

  Patricia Johns

  Patricia Johns is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author who writes from Alberta, Canada, where she lives with her husband and son. She writes Amish romances that will leave you yearning for a simpler life. You can find her at patriciajohns.com and on social media, where she loves to connect with her readers. Drop by her website and you might find your next read!

  Books by Patricia Johns

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  Amish Country Haven

  A Deputy in Amish Country

  The Second Chance Club

  Their Mountain Reunion

  Mountain Mistletoe Christmas

  Rocky Mountain Baby

  Snowbound with Her Mountain Cowboy

  Love Inspired

  Redemption’s Amish Legacies

  The Nanny’s Amish Family

  A Precious Christmas Gift

  Wife on His Doorstep

  Snowbound with the Amish Bachelor

  Blended Amish Blessings

  The Amish Matchmaker’s Choice

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

  This book is for my mom.

  She’s a strong woman who raised a strong daughter.

  Thank you for raising me to be the woman I am.

  I love you!

  Contents

  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

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM THE BULL RIDER’S SECRET SON BY SUSAN BREEDEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE SUN HUNG low in the sky, spilling golden light over Amish Country. Here in the heart of Ohio, almost all of the farms were Amish owned and operated, except for the Westhouse ranch.

  Shadows stretched long across the farmyard, and there was a chill in the evening air, the smell of a bonfire in the distance. Wilder Westhouse leaned back against the fence, watching the job applicant’s technique.

  Sue Schmidt had applied to work on the ranch for a couple of months until Wilder’s brother, Conrad, and his wife, Annabelle, got back from a well-deserved vacation. Anyone Wilder hired had better know the work—he wouldn’t have time to teach that much—and Sue’s résumé was downright impressive. In addition to her general competence, she was attractive in a way that had caught his eye. It shouldn’t matter—it didn’t really—but he’d noticed.

  She was slim, with long auburn hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. She wore a snug pair of jeans and a formfitting pink T-shirt that had a streak of dust down the side. She had a long-sleeved shirt tied around her waist, and when the calf jogged off to the other end of the corral, she didn’t chase it. That was good instinct right there—a cowhand never won if she was stuck chasing down a calf. She paused, then changed her direction, moving slowly, calmly, confidently. She slid the hook smoothly behind the calf’s hind leg and pulled it steadily backward.

  The calf struggled, but Sue put her weight behind the hook, and Wilder took the prepared ear-tag punch and quickly straddled the calf. He punched the tag in place. The calf jerked and balked, and when Wilder swung his leg free of the animal, Sue expertly released the hook hold. The calf ran back to its mother’s side.

  Wilder looked over his shoulder at the pretty job applicant. She arched an eyebrow at him, and he noticed—not for the first time—her sparkling blue eyes.

  “You seem to know the work,” Wilder said. And she was a far sight better than the other applicants.

  “I’ve worked ranches since I was a child,” Sue replied. “I like cows. I understand them.”

  “It’s just me on the ranch right now, and whoever takes the job will be staying in the ranch house. I don’t know if that would be uncomfortable for you,” Wilder said.

  It might be mildly narrow-minded of him, but he’d expected to hire a man for this position. However, he wasn’t opposed to taking on a woman. Whoever could do the work was what mattered most to him.

  “I’d have my own room?” Sue asked.

  “Of course. But everything else is shared—bathroom, kitchen, TV.”

  “I can live with that,” she replied.

  “It’s dawn to dusk work,” Wilder added. “Room and board is free. I pay a daily rate.”

  He outlined the money he could offer, and she nodded. “Sounds fair.”

  “Okay, well...” Wilder shrugged. “If you want the job, you’re hired.”

  A smile lit up her face. “Thank you. I appreciate it. I suppose I should mention that my brother lives right next door to you.”

  “What?” Wilder shot a look over the fence toward the Amish farm next door. Wollie Schmidt was a good neighbor, and they often helped each other out. “Wait...you’re that Sue Schmidt?”

  “You’ve heard of me?”

  Wilder opened the corral gate and secured it behind them. “Yeah, I’ve heard of you. You’re the sister who—how do they say it?—‘jumped the fence’ and left the Amish life. They talk about you like you died.”

  “I didn’t die,” she replied. “I just couldn’t live Amish. But if you leave, it’s almost like you do die to them. There’s Amish and there’s everything else. They don’t see any gray area.”

  “I’m not Amish, and I get along with your brother just fine,” Wilder said. He had a good relationship with his Amish neighbors on both sides, but especially with Wollie Schmidt. It had taken some time to gain the Amish man’s trust, and in a community like this one, those relationships mattered. Ranchers needed their neighbors.

  “My brother has considerably lower expectations for you,” she replied, but she shot him a disarming grin. “No offense.”

  “None taken.” He shook his head. “So why are you here—as in, next door to your brother? Are you thinking of going home?”

  “Not exactly,” she replied. “First of all, I never went that far. I’ve been living in Wooster. I was doing some assisting for a local large animal vet.”

  “Right...” That was part of her impressive résumé, her last job listed. “So why are you leaving that job? It sounds like a great gig.”

  “His nephew just graduated with his vet tech diploma, and I stepped aside. I could see the writing on the wall,” she replied. “And looking for work, I came across your ad. Do you believe in things happening for a reason? Well, yours was the only job I was qualified for, and right next door to my family. I thought it might be one of those serendipity things.”

  Wilder followed her gaze toward the farm next door. A little girl came out of the house wielding a shovel, and tramped out to the garden. Sue’s gaze locked on the girl.

  “Who is that?” she asked softly.

  “Jane—your brother’s daughter. You’ve never met her?”

  Sue shook her head. “Mamm mentions her, but I’ve never seen her in person.”

  Wilder fell silent, and he noticed the conflicted emotion flickering across her face. Then she dragged her gaze back to Wilder and forced a smile.

  “Are you
sure you want to work this close to home?” Wilder asked.

  She nodded. “I’ll be honest. I need the job. And I won’t let any personal issues affect my work. I promise.”

  “Is this going to be a problem for Wollie?” Wilder asked.

  “You’d have to ask Wollie.” Her composure was back. “But I can tell you this much—I know ranching, I’m good at it and you can trust me to get the job done right the first time. If you think you can get that from anyone else, then feel free to hire them instead.”

  It wasn’t really an option.

  “Honestly, you’re the only one who was qualified,” Wilder said. “And not drunk.”

  She met his gaze uncertainly as if wondering if he was joking, then a smile tickled her lips. “Another point in my favor. I don’t drink.”

  As a recovering alcoholic himself, her being a teetotaler was actually a point in her favor. He didn’t have any booze on-site, and he wouldn’t allow it. He needed help for two months on the ranch, and Sue was not only capable, but willing to do the short-term job.

  “Let’s give it a try,” Wilder said. “If it doesn’t work for you being this close to your family, you can let me know and I’ll keep looking for someone else. But for the time being, I’d be happy to work with you.”

  Sue nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Did you want to see the house?” he asked.

  Sue followed him as they walked from the corral to the house. Little Jane seemed to be digging up some potatoes, and she stopped her work and shaded her eyes, watching them. She wouldn’t recognize her aunt, but Jane was a curious child who made the Westhouse ranch her personal business. Wilder had always thought it was because they were “English,” and the differences intrigued the girl.

  “Your niece comes over to visit pretty often,” Wilder said.

  “Does she?”

  “She likes to watch TV. She pretends she isn’t, but she’ll stand right where she can see it from the kitchen, and then freezes there.”

  Sue smiled faintly. “Does my brother mind?”

  “He’d prefer she didn’t. But we have a pretty cordial relationship, and I think they just explain how wicked we are from a distance.”

  Sue chuckled. “They don’t think technology is wicked.”

  “No?” Wilder frowned.

  “No,” she said. “It has to do with maintaining the Plain lifestyle. Technology pulls people away from the things Amish people feel are most important, like family and community. So TV isn’t evil, it’s just not conducive to families actually talking to each other in an evening. It doesn’t help people stay connected.”

  “I can’t argue with you there,” Wilder said. “Parents everywhere complain about their kids being glued to screens.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “So the Amish follow the rules called the Ordnung in order to preserve their way of life. It’s not about Englishers being evil. It’s about being...” She shook her head. “It’s about being Amish.”

  “So you don’t think Wollie warns Jane about our dangerous lifestyle over here?” Wilder teased.

  “Oh, he definitely does.” Sue laughed, though, softening the words. “But he’d never say you were evil. He’d say your way of life has dangerous temptations. I know it’s a fine line, but I think it matters.”

  Sue seemed to care about the way the Amish were understood, and he cast her an evaluating look. She did look a little bit like Wollie around the eyes. And Wilder could see a bit of Linda, her mother, in her, too. But somehow, he couldn’t see her dressed in those modest, Amish clothes—blocks of color with a white apron on top. Sue had too much sass about her, and if Amish women had sass, they hid it under a layer of decorum.

  “Do you think you’ll ever go back?” Wilder asked.

  “Not unless forced,” she replied softly, and her gaze flickered in the direction of the farm next door.

  “Would they force you?” he asked uncertainly.

  “What?” Sue laughed breathily and shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean forced by them. Everyone has a choice, and the Amish believe very deeply in a person’s right to choose. No one is going to come drag me back. I meant forced by circumstances, you know? But no. I don’t see myself ever going back to the Amish life. I left for a reason, and nothing has changed.”

  Once at the house, Wilder took a quick look at her red Chevy pickup. Call it professional curiosity. Wilder liked tinkering with vehicles, and her vehicle was an older model, with a fair amount of rust. He’d be curious to get a look under the hood. Those old Chevys could stand up to a lot. He glanced back in the direction of the Schmidt farm, and Jane waved enthusiastically from the garden. Wilder waved back to the little girl, then opened the side door for Sue.

  “Come on in,” he said.

  Sue came inside, and as she shut the door behind her, he noticed how she deflated just a little bit.

  “How long since you’ve seen your family?” Wilder asked.

  “My mother?” Sue shrugged. “Probably three years. My brother? About fifteen years. I never did see him when he was married, and I certainly didn’t meet his daughter. I was long gone before all of that.”

  “So... Are you going to try to keep yourself a secret, or...”

  “A secret?” Sue smiled faintly. “That wouldn’t really be possible. I’ll go over and let them know where I am. Hopefully, it won’t be too awkward for you.”

  “For me? Nah.” Wilder grinned. “I’m already the outsider around here. Don’t worry about me.”

  So long as Wollie was okay with his sister living in Wilder’s house. He had a sudden image of the tall, gentle man next door stomping over here with a few strong opinions to share. But Wilder and Wollie knew each other quite well, and they had a great deal of respect for each other. The fact that she was willing to go face her brother was rather impressive. She had a backbone, that was for sure.

  “Do you want the tour?” Wilder asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, well, this is the kitchen.” He gestured behind him, and he tried not to notice just how pretty his new ranch hand was. Not only was she his employee, which would make any kind of flirting inappropriate, she was also his neighbor’s younger sister. Men had a certain protective streak when it came to their sisters, and Wilder had heard enough about Sue to know that she was special. So pretty or not, he’d just have to pretend he didn’t notice it.

  What had he just gotten himself into?

  * * *

  THE TOUR OF the ranch house was a short one. There was the kitchen done in dark browns from the eighties, a sitting room with a TV, a couch and some bookshelves, and three bedrooms down one hallway. The one that would be hers overlooked a nicely kept vegetable garden that seemed to have some potatoes still left in the ground and orange pumpkins sitting under large, yellowing leaves. The rest had been hoed under.

  She’d noticed a little addition to the house when she’d driven up. It was newly painted white with the even Amish trim around a generous window, and a chimney coming up out of the roof. In the kitchen, she saw the new, solid door that led into the addition.

  “That looks like a dawdie hus—an in-law suite,” she said, nodding toward the door.

  “Yeah, we added it on when my brother got married,” Wilder said. “Conrad and his wife, Annabelle, are going to build their own house out past the barns, but that will take a bit of time. Until then, this’ll give them some privacy.”

  Wilder’s dark gaze moved over her face in a friendly way, but she felt her face warming all the same. He was good-looking—tall, lanky, strong. And she liked the way he talked easily, opening up. Just the type of man she found herself most drawn to.

  “It looks Amish built,” she said.

  “It was a really generous wedding gift from the local Amish farmers,” Wilder replied. “Your brother and the other neighbors. Conrad arrested some cattle rustlers that were causing a lot of trouble for the Amish farms, and it was their way of saying thank you.”

  Sue nodded. “They would do that, wouldn’t they...”

  The Amish didn’t stay in anyone’s debt, and she’d always liked that about her upbringing. They helped each other, always paying it back when they received help.