Love Beyond His Shadow (Preview)

Chapter One

“You’re staring at yourself again, Stella. If Father sees, he’ll scold you!” Macy warned in a high whisper. 

Stella looked away from her reflection in the church window quickly, her cheeks warm. Embarrassed though she was to be caught by her younger sister in such an act of vanity, Stella was more grateful than anything else. It was true. Her father would give her an earful if he thought she was fussing too much over her looks, especially on Easter Sunday of all days. 

“Thank you,” Stella replied under her breath, looking around to see if their father was ready to proceed inside. Luckily, he was still in the churchyard, talking with Marshall Boone, who owned the ranch next to their farm. 

Stella didn’t understand half the things they talked about, but there always seemed to be some business that needed attending to on their adjoining properties, comparing notes on grass feed and ravenous wolves in the area and so on. 

She let out a small sigh of relief to see that he was distracted. Ever since she’d turned seventeen and become a proper woman, her father’s manner toward her had somewhat changed. Maybe it was that he didn’t recognize the little girl who used to run around the fields with him anymore, or maybe it was that she was starting to look more and more like her mother. 

Had Mrs. Callahan survived the birth of Macy eight years earlier, Stella’s resemblance to her would likely have been a point of pride for her father. As it stood, however, their matching bright green eyes and golden brown hair served as a terrible reminder of everything Mr. Grant Callahan had lost.

 

“Look, Stella! Matthew Boone has one of those new cup and ball games. Can I ask if I can play with him?” Macy begged. 

Stella didn’t see the harm in it. They couldn’t go to their pew until their father was ready, and they were early for the service anyway. She looked over to where Matthew was playing with the carved cup attached by a string to a ball that he was trying to toss and catch. His two older brothers were with him, Luke and Eli, alternating between giving him tips and teasing him for his lack of coordination.

Under the Colorado spring sun with the mountains acting as a background for the church steeple behind them, the Boone brothers looked like the perfect picture of health and wholesomeness. They got along famously with the Callahan sisters, having grown up next to each other, and Stella considered Matthew and Luke to be her siblings.

With Eli, everything was a little different. It was only two years earlier when she’d noticed his broadening shoulders and deepening voice. Just like hers had, his face was shifting into that of an adult, and a handsome one at that. Suddenly, she’d started to feel nervous around him, aware of how she held herself and the girlishness of her laugh.

Of course, it had been nothing more than an innocent and brief infatuation. No doubt Eli thought of her as no more than a younger sister, and Stella had since come to realize there were other boys who did not think of her as a child. Luke Boone, for one, got pie-eyed in her presence, but she knew he’d grow out of that. 

“Yes, yes, go on. I’ll call for you when it’s time to go in,” Stella told her younger sister, her attention already moving toward the most handsome man in the entire churchyard, or, to be entirely accurate, all of Blueridge, Colorado. As if he could feel her eyes on him from five yards away, he broke away from his conversation with the mayor’s elderly mother and started sauntering toward her. 

Victor Flint. Even his name was dashing. He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome, with deep, shining eyes and a stature that was the envy of all other men in Blueridge. 

At twenty-one, Victor was four years her senior, and far more experienced in the ways of life. Yes, Eli was also twenty-one, but he’d never left Blueridge. Victor hailed from Chicago and had seen far corners of the world that Stella could only dream of. Eli still lived on his father’s ranch, while Victor had stepped out on his own, taking up one of the largest apartments in the town, above the dressmaker’s shop. There was no comparison between the two men. In fact, Stella wasn’t sure why she’d ever compared them in the first place. 

Everyone else in the churchyard melted away from Stella’s vision as Victor approached, his sideways grin making her knees weak. 

“It’s not fair, Miss Stella Callahan,” he said when he was finally in front of her, his voice so low that even the most eager eavesdroppers would not have been able to hear what he was saying.

“What’s not fair, Mr. Flint?” she asked, excited to see what kind of game he was playing with her.

“How beautiful you are, of course. How am I supposed to focus on the pastor’s words when I know that a lady with the light of all the stars combined is sitting just a few pews away?” 

It was the kind of comment that might make someone else groan, but Stella soaked up every delicious word, delighting in the attention. 

“I suppose you’ll just have to pretend I’m not there at all. It is Easter, after all. We must be thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifices above all else,” Stella replied, truly meaning every word that she spoke. 

She didn’t mind the way Victor joked, especially if there was a compliment tacked on, but when it came to her faith, Stella was a very serious woman. After the death of her mother, the Lord had seen her through the darkest days, even while her father turned to the bottle and she was forced to raise her sister practically by herself. 

“Then I must beg your forgiveness because I find your pretty green eyes to be highly distracting. So bright and… knowing. Too knowing,” Victor said, his voice full of suspicion as he looked her over. It brought a smile to Stella’s face, though she had no idea what he was talking about. 

“Too knowing? What do you mean?”

Victor shook his head, but Stella could tell that he wasn’t truly upset. Whatever game they were playing, he found her just as charming as she found him.

“Your father told you about our conversation, didn’t he? I made him promise he wouldn’t!” Victor lamented. 

Now, Stella was truly confused. Her father barely spoke to her at all, and when he did, it was usually to criticize her cooking. 

“He didn’t tell me a thing. If you had a private conversation with him, he has kept his word and not told me,” Stella assured him, but Victor was having none of it.

“You’ve never been a very good actress, my dear, and your father has never been able to keep a secret. He told you I asked him for your hand in marriage, didn’t he?” 

Stella gasped so loudly it was highly likely the whole churchyard could hear her, but she didn’t care at all. Her heart leaped for joy and she had to stop herself from jumping up and down like a little girl. She was a woman now, a woman who was loved and in love, and who was on the precipice of a stunning marriage proposal!

“You asked my father for my hand in marriage?” 

“Shh! Keep your voice down. I know you’re not surprised to hear it. It would be best not to embarrass your father by letting on that you told me the truth after he promised to keep it a secret. I had the most wonderful plan for how I was going to ask you, but it won’t work now that it’s not a surprise,” Victor replied, smiling just as widely as Stella was.

“Oh, don’t worry! I’ll be terribly surprised anyway. You won’t be disappointed. Am I to understand that my father gave you his blessing?” 

Victor nodded. “He called me his son right then and there.” 

Despite her overwhelming joy at this bit of news, a small question bit through her happiness. She was ever so slightly taken aback to hear that her father was so supportive of the potential engagement. Though he’d never said anything to stop Victor’s courtship of Stella, Mr. Callahan always managed to insert some insult whenever his name was brought up at home. 

As far as Stella knew, her father thought of Victor as being too handsome for his own good and a stranger to hard work since his wealthy parents back in Chicago funded his life. Never once did he acknowledge that it would be beneficial to Stella and the whole Callahan family to be associated with Victor’s relative wealth. 

In fact, Stella had always been under the impression that her father wanted to delay her getting married as long as possible. If and when she got married, she would be expected to depart the house she’d grown up in, thereby leaving the running of it to her father. He would have to hire a housekeeper to take care of the eight-year-old Macy and keep the kitchen fires burning. 

Suddenly, Stella was struck with guilt as she considered her sister’s place in all of this. There was a chance that her father’s stinginess would prevent him from taking on a housekeeper and force Macy to leave school to wait on him hand and foot, all while the farm fell into further disarray year after year. 

“You’ve gone somewhere far away, my dear. What’s the matter?” Victor asked, concerned. 

Stella put on a smile again, quickly remembering that soon enough, all her dreams were going to come true. Despite any and all worries, Victor’s imminent proposal was good news. 

“Oh, nothing, really! I was just thinking about… about how we have to make sure my sister is well taken care of once we are married.”

The church bells rang out and Victor held out his arm to Stella as they waited for Mr. Callahan and the rest of the congregation to filter inside. 

“You are too kind for your own good, my dear. You’re always putting the well-being of others before yourself! For once, my dear Stella, I beg you to think about what will make you happy. Anyone as beautiful as you deserves every comfort this world has to offer, and I intend to give that to you, and more.” 

“I don’t deserve anything simply because I’m beautiful!” Stella protested though she blushed at the compliment nonetheless. “And it is my dearest wish that my sister is taken care of.” 

“Then so it shall be,” Victor promised. The love in his gaze showered down around her, filling Stella with a kind of fulfillment she’d only experienced through prayer before. 

Stella flashed her father a rare smile as he walked into the church with Mr. Boone. He looked back at her strangely but said nothing. Macy soon caught up with them as well, speaking excitedly about her successes with the cup and ball game. 

Behind them streamed in the Boone boys. Without meaning to, Stella caught Eli’s eye. He was neither smiling nor frowning, but she could tell there was something of a warning in his look. 

Eli had never taken to Victor. In fact, Stella’s courtship with Victor marked a kind of ending to the closeness in her friendship with Eli. It wasn’t something she thought about often, but every once in a while, when Eli looked at her like that, as if he was plumbing the depths of her soul to discover an answer to some question he refused to speak out loud, Stella wondered if she was doing the right thing. 

***

“What a wonderful service!” Stella exclaimed as soon as her father signaled for the horse to start pulling their buggy home, where they would have a light lunch before she started roasting the lamb that would serve as their Easter feast. 

“It was fine enough. I don’t know what’s got you so smiley today. In case you’ve forgotten, it hasn’t rained in weeks, and if it doesn’t soon, then the planting season will be ruined, we’ll have nothing to harvest in the fall, and we’ll be starving by Christmas. Marshall Boone was telling me he’s worried about his herd,” Mr. Callahan complained. 

“All the more reason to be grateful for everything we do have, don’t you think? If we don’t take the time to thank the Lord for everything he provides—”

“I can’t bear listening to your screeching about prayer for another second, Stella. Keep it to yourself. We’ve just been to church, isn’t that enough?” her father scolded.

Tears sprung to Stella’s eyes before she could stop them, shocked at the harshness of her father’s tone. She turned her face to the side to keep Macy from noticing. More than anything, she wanted to present a strong front for her. 

Looking at the dry fields pass by as they drove home brought Stella some understanding of her father’s plight. As cruel as he could be, he wasn’t wrong about needing the rain to come, and she couldn’t blame him for panicking about the future of the farm. Many others had failed around them, falling victim to harsh winters and the unforgiving landscape. 

“Don’t worry, Father. We’ll figure something out. Once Victor and I are married, he’ll be part of the family, and I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to invest in—”

Mr. Callahan interrupted with a guffaw. “If you think that man is ever going to marry you, you’re sorely mistaken, my dear. Someone like him will need to marry for money. He’ll need a wife who can support his life because goodness knows he doesn’t know how to work for it himself and his parents aren’t going to fork over their hard-earned funds for much longer.” 

Any hurt still lingering in Stella quickly turned into anger. When it came to her love, she would stop at nothing to defend his good name.

“Then why did you tell him he had your blessing to marry me? If you think so poorly of him, then you ought to be protecting me!” she shot back, temporarily forgetting that she didn’t like to fight in front of Macy.

“What in the heck are you going on about now? That man of yours has never asked me anything about your hand in marriage. And trust me, even if he did marry you, he’d never help us out with the farm.” 

Feeling Macy’s eyes on her, Stella stopped herself from retorting. In all likelihood, her father had probably been too drunk to remember the talk with Victor. He frequently came stumbling back from the saloon in town. Over breakfast, he’d look at bruises on his arms, unable to recall where they’d come from. Stella knew better than to remind him that they likely came from bar fights. This wasn’t the time to embarrass him and inform him that he had, in fact, given his blessing to Victor, regardless of what he did or did not remember.

They rode the rest of the way home in silence. Not even Macy made a peep about her triumphs playing with the Boone boys or what she was learning in school. Stella did her best to keep her tears at bay and remain the picture of gratitude that she wanted to be. 

At times like these, it helped to remember her mother. Mrs. Grace Callahan would have made some perfectly charming and somehow light comment about how their struggles were nothing in comparison to others in the world. If they’d stayed in England like their parents had, they probably would be starving in the rain instead of the sunshine! 

Everyone would have laughed, and her father would have apologized for losing sight of what really mattered. They would have all crowded into the kitchen together to help with dinner while Mr. Callahan played the banjo for them, singing and laughing until it was time for bed. 

As it stood, Stella, Macy, and their father would probably eat dinner in silence. Mr. Callahan would grimly put up with Stella insisting on saying grace, and Macy would only eat half her meal before claiming to have an upset stomach and asking to go to bed early. 

When the buggy started pulling up toward the farmhouse the Callahans called home, Stella looked over to the Boone home, looming over their large acreage. Despite their ever-shifting friendships, she had always enjoyed her time there. The happiness she remembered from when her mother was still alive was preserved on the Boone ranch, where the boys were always playing, and there was always a song in the air. 

Then and there, Stella promised herself that wherever her life with Victor might take her, she would always make sure they had a joyful home. Though she knew life without his daughters would secretly devastate their father, Stella had half a mind to take her sister with her when she left. 

As much as Stella deserved the life she wanted (as per Victor’s words), so did Macy. Stella was not going to stand by and watch while her sister became a maid to her father and let go of her own dreams. No, Macy would always be welcome in her home with Victor, as would anyone who needed a reminder that there was enough goodness to go around for all. 

Chapter Two

“You don’t think she’s going to marry him, do you?” Luke asked breathlessly as he finished hammering in the last fence post. Eli handed him a flask of water, knowing exactly who his brother was talking about without having to clarify. 

“I know it won’t end well if she does,” Eli replied grimly, remembering Stella Callahan’s look of complete and utter devotion for Victor that morning at church. It was like she turned into a completely different person around him, putting on airs and acting like she couldn’t muck out a stall just as well as the rest of them could. 

He didn’t have proof, but Eli knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was something off about Victor Flint. Was that even his real name? If his story was to be believed, he hailed from a wealthy manufacturing family in Chicago, who funded his life of leisure, but it all seemed too convenient to Eli.

First of all, as far as he knew, the kind of men who didn’t have to work for a living didn’t live in places like Blueridge, Colorado. Blueridge was the kind of place where desperate people came to seek their fortune, having been beaten down by other parts of the world. It was a town that folks passed through on their way to hopefully strike gold, and where others prayed they’d find freedom. It represented a fresh start for many, but only for those who were willing to work hard.

There was no French tailor, no world-class hotel, and no opera or orchestra in Blueridge. It had nothing that men like Victor Flint claimed to enjoy, and certainly nothing that a city like Chicago could boast. 

Then again, Blueridge had plenty that Chicago, New York, London, or Paris would never have: mountains upon mountains, clean air unencumbered by the stench of coal, and miles of land a man could be proud to live off of. It was where Eli Boone had been born, and he had no intention of ever leaving. 

He and Victor were simply too different for Eli to make any sense of it. All he could think was that Victor had something to hide. Maybe there was something he was running away from, or perhaps he’d made his fortune from ill-begotten means, but he was certainly not the perfect man that Stella thought he was. 

“I should have said something to her ages ago. Before she met Victor. Now I’ll never stand a chance with her,” Luke complained, hitting the fence post again unnecessarily. 

“What’s meant to be will come to pass,” Eli offered as comfort, but he knew it would mean little to his younger brother. Though Luke was the same age as Stella, they both were very aware that she did not think of him as a man yet. Luke had had his heart set on Stella since they were just boys. 

To be in love with Stella Callahan was a fate Eli didn’t wish upon anyone. Not because she wasn’t a perfectly wonderful person, but because she was. Too wonderful. As far as he could tell, however, no good came from loving anyone as beautiful as Stella. She was bound to break hearts wherever she went, and it pained Eli to see his brother fall victim. 

There had been a time when she’d held a candle for him, but even at the young age of nineteen, Eli had known better than to indulge her fancies. Now, two years later, he’d been proven right. Whatever had passed between them had been a mere infatuation on her part, and her courtship with Victor was proof of that. 

Of course, Eli had never dared to tell his brother Luke about what had passed between himself and Stella. Luke would likely never survive the betrayal, though Eli had tried his best to not encourage the young Stella. She’d only been fifteen at the time, but even then, Eli was aware of Luke’s budding feelings for the girl. 

“It wouldn’t be as hard to take if she was marrying someone else. Anyone else. Even you,” Luke said with a jovial laugh, poking fun at Eli. Even in the depths of heartbreak, Luke managed to maintain his good nature. For some reason, however, Eli took offense to the comment.

“I would never marry someone like Stella Callahan. It doesn’t matter how pretty her eyes are if she can’t see how stupid Victor Flint is.”

Luke raised his eyebrows in surprise, and Eli immediately regretted his defensiveness. Stella wasn’t to blame for Victor’s duplicity. 

“I thought Stella and Macy were like the sisters you never had. You’ve said that on many—”

“I know, I know. I just… I wish there was more I could do to protect her,” Eli answered honestly. It was the truth. More than anything, he wanted to save Stella from anyone who might do her harm, including himself. He’d managed to put an end to her feelings for him when she’d been too young to understand them, but there was nothing he could do now to stop her from marrying a probable criminal like Victor.

“All we can do is continue to be there for both her and Macy as if nothing has changed. Even if Stella doesn’t play with us anymore and her future husband can’t look us in the eye.”

“Why would he look us in the eye if it means having to crane his neck up?” Eli replied, enjoying getting a jab in at Victor’s shortness. Luke was too good of a man to ever insult someone else, especially behind their back, so Eli took it upon himself to do it instead. To his delight, Luke cracked a smile.

“And I’ll bet he doesn’t know the difference between flint corn and flour corn,” Luke added with a cheeky grin. 

Eli wanted to encourage this mischievous edge in Luke, but just then, their younger brother Matthew came running up to them, screaming his head off about something neither of them could quite make out.

“What are you yelling about?” Eli shouted when Matthew got closer, but the youngest of the Boone brothers was so out of breath he could hardly get the words out.

“Keystone! She’s… giving… the foal! Birth…” he trailed off.

“Keystone the mare is finally giving birth?” Luke translated, and Matthew nodded hastily. 

“We need hot water, now,” Eli ordered, jumping into action.

“Someone should go get Macy and Stella! They always like watching the foals be born,” Luke suggested. 

Though he couldn’t help but feel Luke could do with a bit of distance from Stella just then, Eli gave in. It didn’t matter how many of their own farm animals the girls had seen give birth, the pure joy they both got from witnessing the miracle of life was a gift he couldn’t deny them.

“Fine. Go quickly, and we’ll meet you in the barn!”

After what seemed like only minutes later, Stella, Macy, Matthew, Luke, and Eli were all crowded around the stable in question. The girls and Matthew were watching from one stall over, standing on a bench to get a good view and keep out of the way, while Luke and Eli were in the thick of it. 

Unfortunately, the birth was not going well. The foal was somehow stuck, her legs all turned the wrong way round. 

“Maybe we should get back home. Father will be angry if he doesn’t get his dinner on time,” Stella suggested to Macy. Eli respected her instincts in the matter. If the birth ended badly, Macy might end up scarred for life. On the other hand, they’d had success in much trickier situations. 

“Hang on. It won’t be much longer now,” he promised, looking up at Stella on her perch. She gave him a worried look, communicating more with her eyes than words ever could. They’d always shared a kind of secret, silent language. “Don’t worry. Luke knows what to do. Don’t you, Luke?” 

The middle brother nodded, and only Eli was close enough to see the nerves on his face. If there was ever a chance for Luke to impress Stella, it was now. Eli wasn’t a betting man, but he’d put good money on the fact that Victor would have no idea how to save a breech birth. 

A tenseness entered the air in the barn as Luke got to work. Eli served as an assistant to anything Luke needed, handing him tools and clean clothes as necessary. Luke’s talent was impressive to watch. He somehow managed to keep the mare calm as he massaged her stomach, turning the foal inside until it was the right way around. 

In the end, he had to stick an arm right inside Keystone, pulling at the foal until the first front hoof finally appeared, followed smoothly by the second, and then the head. Soon enough, the whole foal tumbled out, finding its feet and wobbling into a standing position. The whole barn erupted into a round of applause.

“Take a bow, Luke!” Eli encouraged. 

Luke did, reveling in the moment. Eli watched as Luke looked up at Stella, hoping for a kind word or a momentary loving gaze. It pained him to see that Stella didn’t look at him once, instead keeping her eyes trained on the foal who was learning to walk. 

He couldn’t fault her for not loving his brother. Love couldn’t be chosen like that, or at least that’s what he believed. There were plenty of others who thought that love could grow out of convenience, and when it came to Luke and Stella, he wished more than anything that it was true. 

“We really should get home now, but—”

“Can we invite the Boones over to dinner?” Macy asked sweetly, interrupting her older sister. 

“I don’t know about that. I’m sure they have their own Easter dinner planned, and we don’t want to interrupt or insert ourselves,” Stella explained politely. 

“Why not? We can bring over whatever’s being cooked up right now and have a feast for the century!” Luke suggested amiably. Eli felt ever so slightly embarrassed for his brother, worrying that his unabashed love for Stella was now on full display, but he couldn’t blame the boy for trying. 

“Well, when you put it like that… Father would certainly be in a better mood if we had company,” Stella agreed.

“He never yells at us when the others are around!” Macy shouted joyously, making everyone burst out laughing despite the dark nature of her statement. 

“All right then, it’s settled! We’ll see you all at sunset,” Stella announced. 

Applause broke out again, and for a brief moment, Eli allowed himself a bit of hope for his brother. Or, at least, a bit of hope that maybe Stella was the same girl he’d grown up with. The same Stella who would run with the horses and braid together daisy chains into crowns for her and Macy to wear. The Stella who didn’t worry about whether the dyed lace on her hem matched the ribbons on her bonnet. 

“You see that? She wants to have dinner with me,” Luke whispered to Eli after the Callahan girls had gone back to their house. 

“By that logic, she wants to have dinner with our father too,” Eli replied. “Don’t get your heart set on anything too fast now.”

“I won’t, I won’t. I know she and Victor have been courting for a while. But I wonder if… if I just show her that I know how to be there for her, that I can give her a good life, and that we could raise our children the way we were raised… then maybe she could see that he’s not the one for her.”

“It’s dangerous, to want what belongs to another,” Eli warned, more serious now. If his brother was really going to try to launch a love offensive, he had to be prepared to accept defeat, something he wasn’t accustomed to doing. 

“I know, and I don’t mean to steal Stella away or anything. It’s just that… I know she’s the one for me, Eli. And I know I’m the one for her.” 

Eli couldn’t argue with his brother’s confidence. He knew firsthand how mesmerizing Stella Callahan could be, and that was why he’d always done his best to keep the boundaries clear between them and not get caught in the net she never even meant to cast. Sometimes, a man had to make a mistake for himself in order to learn from it properly. 

***

Grant Callahan was in a spectacular mood when the Boones all came traipsing over in a long line, each of them carrying a dish that had been made and carefully packaged by the ranch cook, Mrs. Hardy. They’d invited her as well, but she said it was important that she be with the ranch workers on such an auspicious holiday. Without her supervision, they were bound to get into some trouble. 

“Marshall, Matthew, Eli, and Luke, what a darn pleasure to have you here!” Grant announced with open arms when they walked into the farmhouse. His words were only slightly slurred, showing that he’d had just enough whisky to enjoy himself. If they didn’t eat soon, that mood could turn at the drop of a hat. 

The Callahan farmhouse was light and airy, thanks to the attentions of Stella. All the paint was fresh, and she’d even taken the time to stencil floral patterns onto the walls of the main hallway, made to look like the expensive wallpaper that only the wealthier families could afford. 

Still, despite the struggles the farm and ranch had both faced in recent months, the Boones and Callahans were considered two of the most stable families in Blueridge, and that stability was the envy of many. The children were all lucky to have gone to school in town instead of being forced to work in the coal mines from the age of twelve, as many other children had to. Both families had carved out a life for themselves, existing off the land and profiting from what they grew and raised.

Stella and Macy were there by the door to take the food off their hands, which of course was appreciated, but their presence was missed as soon as they left for the kitchen. None of the boys had considered that this joint dinner might just have presented more work for the women than usual. 

“I hear there’s rumors of rain next week. Mr. Kelly down at the general store said he could feel it in his knees,” Marshall Boone revealed as Grant handed him a glass of whisky. All the boys opted for lemonade instead. 

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all month,” Grant replied, clinking their cups together. 

“Time to come to the table!” Stella finally declared. Just the sound of her voice made Luke jump to his feet. 

Eli noticed that she’d changed her dress since church that morning. Now, she was wearing a simple cotton dress of spring green, patterned with small blue flowers that looked like forget-me-nots. The green of the dress perfectly brightened the slightly darker green of her eyes. 

He managed to convince himself that he was only able to notice these small details because he knew Luke would be noticing them too, and if he was going to watch over his brother, then he had to be aware of the beauty that was tormenting him. 

As they all crowded around the table that was decorated prettily with pink and yellow tulips in the center, Stella told everyone where to sit. 

“Now, my mother always taught me that table settings ought to alternate between men and women, but seeing as my sister and I are heavily outnumbered here, we’ll alternate between brown neckerchiefs and black ones,” Stella decided, prompting a laugh from the small crowd. 

Grant, Marshall, and Matthew all took the places Stella instructed them to, with her father placed at one end of the table, of course. Stella was to take the other end, while Macy fought for the spot beside Matthew. Though there were eight years between them, they were both the youngest of their respective families and often grouped together because of it. 

There was only one spot left next to Stella, and both Eli and Luke still needed to be placed. They glanced up at each other, and Eli knew his brother was silently asking him to step back. A good part of Eli wanted to stand his ground and save Luke from the heartbreak that he was inevitably condemning himself to, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. He looked down and slipped back, leaving it up to Stella.

“And Luke, why don’t you sit next to me here? I think that leaves one place open for Eli, beside my father,” Stella said, understanding the silent agreement that had been made between the brothers. They’d all known each other for so long that they practically had a secret language between the siblings, though there were many secrets that went unspoken. 

“Let us join hands,” the hostess continued once everyone was seated, “and give grace and thanks to the Lord for this luxurious feast before us. Please, bless everyone who worked to grow the crops that made our meal today, and—”

“And bring the rain, for heaven’s sake!” Grant interrupted his eldest daughter. Everyone chuckled to make up for the rudeness of the interjection. 

“And bless our mothers above. Grace and Harriet, I hope we’re doing you proud,” Luke continued, changing the tenor of the prayer completely. Like Mrs. Callahan, Mrs. Boone had also been taken before her time, struck down by a bout of cholera five years earlier. Mr. Boone had held up better than Mr. Callahan since losing the mother of his children, but both families felt the loss harshly. 

“Amen,” everyone concluded together before opening their eyes and digging into the meal they were all so hungry for. The ham and beans presented by the Boones didn’t exactly complement the roast lamb that Stella and her sister had made, but that hardly mattered. The fine company, rosy cheeks, and full bellies were more than enough.

Laughter sounded all throughout the dinner, though Eli found himself far too preoccupied with the furtive glances his brother was throwing Stella’s way to relax. If only he knew how bad things were going to get for both their families in the not-so-distant future, maybe he would have let himself enjoy that last supper of peace instead of worrying about Luke’s heart getting broken. 

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My new novel “Love Beyond His Shadow” is coming soon! Stay tuned for the announcement!

Do you want more Western Romance? Check out my latest Amazon Best-Selling novel, “Destined for the Mail-Order Groom”!

Twenty-three-year-old Libby Parker is at her wit’s end. After her parents died in a tragic accident, Libby took charge of her younger brother and sister, working at any odd job she could find to keep a roof over their heads. Even despite becoming a successful author, the heartbreak of losing the man she loved to another woman left her struggling to write her next book. Desperate for a fresh start, Libby must now place her hope for security and maybe even love in a mail-order bride catalog, agreeing to marry a rancher found by her friend through an agency.

Will Libby overcome her doubts and fears and learn to trust a man again?

Luke Thompson, a young rancher in North Texas, is burdened with the weight of his family’s troubles. With his mother’s passing, his father’s descent into bottle and gambling, and the care of his little brother, his best friend Travis answers an ad, seeing Luke’s need not only for help but for love. When Libby comes along, and with a deep sense of responsibility, Luke proposes they spend a month together, giving themselves time to see if their partnership can blossom into something more.

Can he see beyond his frustration and anger and realize the treasure that Libby offers?

As the days turn into weeks, Libby and Luke find themselves falling for each other, discovering a profound connection and a shared sense of purpose. Yet, amidst the budding affection, challenges arise. Luke’s father’s mounting debts threaten the ranch, and Libby’s unresolved grief hampers her creativity. Will their love be enough to weather the storms that lie ahead, or will their newfound happiness be shattered by forces beyond their control?

“Destined for the Mail-Order Groom” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Get your copy from Amazon!