The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter. Sherryl Woods

       Chapter One

      Harlan Adams walked out of Rosa’s Mexican Café after eating his fill of her spicy brand of Tex-Mex food just in time to see his pickup barrel down the center of Main Street at fifty miles an hour. In the sleepy Texas town of Los Piños, both the theft and the speed were uncommon occurrences.

      “Ain’t that your truck?” Mule Masters asked, staring after the vehicle that was zigzagging all over the road, endangering parked cars and pedestrians alike.

      “Sure as hell is,” Harlan said, indignation making his insides churn worse than Rosa’s hot sauce.

      “That’s what you get for leaving your keys in plain sight. I’ve been telling you for months now that times have changed. The world’s full of thieves and murderers,” Mule said ominously. “They were bound to get to Los Piños sooner or later.”

      Given the time it was wasting, Harlan found the familiar lecture extremely irritating. “Where’s your car?” he snapped.

      Mule blinked at the sharp tone. “Across the street, right where it always is.”

      Harlan was already striding across the two-lane road before the words were completely out of his friend’s mouth. “Come on, old man.”

      Mule appeared vaguely startled by the command. “Come on where?”

      “To catch the damned thing, that’s where,” he replied with a certain amount of eagerness. The thought of a good ruckus held an amazing appeal.

      “Sheriff’s close by,” Mule objected without picking up speed.

      Harlan lost patience with the procrastinating that had earned Mule his nickname. “Just give me your keys,” he instructed. He didn’t take any chances on Mule’s compliance. He reached out and snatched them from his friend’s hand.

      Before the old man could even start grumbling, Harlan was across the street and starting the engine of a battered old sedan. That car had seen a hundred thousand hard miles or more back and forth across the state of Texas, thanks to Mule’s knack for tinkering with an engine.

      Harlan pulled out onto Main Street, gunned the engine a couple of times, then shifted gears with pure pleasure. The smooth glide from standing stock-still to sixty in the blink of an eye was enough to make a man weep.

      In less than a minute his truck was in sight again on the outskirts of town and he was gaining on it. He was tempted to whoop with joy at the sheer exhilaration of the impromptu race, but he had to keep every bit of his energy focused on his pursuit of that runaway truck.

      The chase lasted just long enough to stir his ire, but not nearly long enough to be downright interesting. Not a mile out of town, where the two-lane road curved like a well-rounded lady’s hips, he caught up with the truck just in time to see it miss the turn and swerve straight toward a big, old, cottonwood tree. His heart climbed straight into his throat and stayed there as he watched the drama unfold.

      He veered from the highway onto the shoulder and slammed on his own brakes just as the truck collided with the tree. It hit with a resounding thwack that crumpled the front fender on the passenger side, sent his blood pressure soaring, and elicited a string of profanity from inside the truck that blistered his ears.

      “What the devil?” he muttered as he scrambled from the borrowed car and ran toward the truck. Obviously the thief couldn’t be badly injured if he had that much energy left for cursing.

      To his astonishment, when he flung open the driver’s door, a slender young girl practically tumbled out into his arms. He righted her, keeping a firm clamp on her wrist in case the little thief decided to flee.

      She couldn’t be a day over thirteen, he decided, gazing into scared brown eyes. Admittedly, though, she had a vocabulary that a much older dock worker would envy. She also had a belligerent tilt to her cute little chin and a sullen expression that dared him to yell at her.

      Taken aback by her apparent age, Harlan bit back the shouted lecture he’d planned and settled for a less confrontative approach. He could hardly wait to hear why this child had stolen his pickup.

      “You okay?” he inquired quietly. Other than a bump on her forehead, he couldn’t see any other signs of injury.

      She wriggled in a game effort to free herself from his grip. He grinned at the wasted attempt. He’d wrestled