A Kiss for Cade Read online

  A Kiss for Cade

  Western Sky [2]

  Lori Copeland

  Harvest House Publishers (1997)

  *

  Tags: General, Fiction, Romance, Love Stories, Christian Fiction, Christian, Foster Parents

  Bestselling author Lori Copeland shares another marvelous romantic Western full of God’s grace, the beauty of redemption, and second chances.

  Famous bounty hunter Cade Kolby is forced off the trail to decide the fate of his late sister’s orphaned children. He’s not just returning to his hometown and nieces and nephews, but also to the fiery redhead he loved and left 17 years ago.

  The last person Zoe Bradshaw wants to see is Cade. She tries to be cool and polite, even as the attraction between them flares up again. Only this time, Zoe is determined to not let Cade get close to her heart.

  But the townsfolk have other ideas. They want to see the little orphans with a mother and a father, and they form a plan that includes the possibility of a kiss…

  Formerly titled The Courtship of Cade Kolby, rewritten for the inspirational market.

  About the Author

  Lori Copeland is the author of more than 90 titles, both historical and contemporary fiction. With more than 3 million copies of her books in print, she has developed a loyal following among her rapidly growing fans in the inspirational market. She has been honored with the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award, The Holt Medallion, and

  A Kiss for Cade

  LORI

  COPELAND

  HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

  EUGENE, OREGON

  Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon

  Cover photos © Shutterstock; Pozazides

  Author photo © The Picture People

  Published in association with the Books & Such Literary Agency, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170, Santa Rosa, CA 95409-5370, www.booksandsuch.biz.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  A KISS FOR CADE

  Copyright © 1997 by Copeland, Inc.

  Published by Harvest House Publishers

  Eugene, Oregon 97402

  www.harvesthousepublishers.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Copeland, Lori.

  [Courtship of Cade Kolby]

  A kiss for Cade / Lori Copeland.

  p. cm.—(Western sky series)

  Previous title: The courtship of Cade Kolby.

  ISBN 978-0-7369-2763-5 (pbk.)

  1. Foster parents—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3553.O6336C68 2009

  813’ .54—dc22

  2009018450

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / DP-SK / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  About the Author

  Other books by the Author

  Prologue

  Winterborn, Kansas 1885

  Zoe Bradshaw walked into the sweltering bedroom, dread filling her heart. Addy and her husband lay on the bed, their nightclothes soaked with sweat. “You rang the bell?”

  Addy whispered, “John’s gone.”

  Zoe’s hand flew to her throat. She stared at the middle-aged man, lying still as death. “I just checked him a few minutes ago. Why didn’t you call—”

  “He took a long, deep breath and stepped over.”

  Moving closer, Zoe gently closed the deceased’s eyelids, whispering, “Rest in peace, John.”

  “He’s in God’s care now.”

  Zoe still remembered that cold Kansas winter morning when John had accepted God’s gift of salvation. She and Addy had been young girls. Kneeling beside her best friend, Zoe held tightly to her hand. Addy was more sister than friend. They had walked to school every morning, carried each other’s books and lunch pails, shared their dreams. Addy knew everything about Zoe, and Zoe knew everything about her. The dam burst and tears rolled down Zoe’s cheeks. John and Addy only had the fever a few days. How could such a small sickness take John? Addy would be brokenhearted, and her four children devastated. Addy’s hand tightened in Zoe’s. “You have to do something for me.”

  “I’ll take care of the services, the wake—”

  “No. Send for Cade.”

  The mention of Addy’s brother stopped Zoe’s tears. She lifted her head. “Don’t bring him back here, Addy. Please. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll look after the children and you.” Zoe had finally gotten Addy’s brother out of her heart. Six years ago she had married Jim Bradshaw, the mercantile owner. Jim hadn’t brought out the same giddy emotions that Cade could, but they had had a good life. A gratifying life. Together they had run the mercantile. When Jim was shot and killed a year ago in a senseless robbery, she had been able to go on. Addy had seen her through the first few months of grief. Zoe had begun to look forward to what each new day had in store, before Addy and John both took ill with the fever.

  “I need my brother, Zoe. Cade was young and restless when he rode out of here fifteen years ago. He’s a different man now.”

  Perhaps, but Zoe didn’t want him back in her life. Not ever. Stepping to the open window, she called Brody, Addy’s oldest son. The boy came running.

  “I need you to go into town and get some help—”

  “Ma?”

  She shook her head. “Just tell Gracie I need help right away. Ask Holly to keep Will and Missy outside until
you get back.”

  The boy left at a run.

  Turning back to Addy, Zoe forced a normal tone. “What possible good would it serve to bring Cade back? I’m widowed. Together, you and I can raise the children. They’re already like my own.”

  Addy’s feverish hand sought Zoe’s. “I want Cade to decide who’ll raise my children.”

  “You’re talking nonsense. You’re not going to die—John was weaker. You’ll be fine soon.” Her gaze avoided John’s lifeless body lying next to Addy’s.

  “Tell Cade…” Coughing, Addy sat up and Zoe spoonfed her drops of cool water. When the spasm subsided, her friend dropped back to the pillow and closed her eyes. “You must do this for me, Zoe.”

  “Of course.” When the crisis passed and Addy felt better, the promise would be moot. “If anything happens, which it won’t, I’ll send for him.” Curiosity made her wonder why Addy would even ask such a thing. Cade was a bounty hunter, a man with no roots and, if you asked Zoe, no heart. Addy’s children were like her flesh and blood, and Addy knew Zoe could never have children of her own. The fever must have addled her reasoning.

  Zoe sat quietly beside the bed in the airless room. Outside, darkness closed in around the small log house. Gracie, the mayor’s wife, would feed the children supper. Winterborn took care of its own. Please, Lord, don’t take Addy. I’ve made it without Jim, but if I lose Addy too…

  Addy’s eyes flew open and fixed on the ceiling. Zoe leaned closer. “A little more water?”

  “Cade. Tell him I love him, and I understand why he did what he did to help Ma and Pa.”

  “Addy, please. You’re going to be fine. You can’t die. I couldn’t live without you.” Zoe turned away briefly to wring out a cool cloth, and when she turned back, Addy’s eyes were closed.

  Stepping back, she straightened, her eyes automatically checking for the slow rise and fall of Addy’s breathing. Leaning closer, she frowned. Throwing back the light sheet, she bent her head to Addy’s chest and listened for a heartbeat.

  The only sound that met her ear was the buzzing noise of the cicadas outside the window.

  Chapter One

  Well, if that don’t beat all. Cade Kolby, showin’ up after fifteen years as if he hadn’t been gone a day.” Sawyer Gayford shifted in his chair to watch the town’s famous prodigal son ride in.

  Roy Baker, editor of the Winterborn News, elbowed the dust from the front window of the barbershop and craned his neck. “Never saw anything like it. Look at him. You’d swear he didn’t know he was the most feared bounty hunter in Kansas.”

  “There’s your headline this week, Roy,” Sawyer said. “‘Kolby Shows Up for His Sister and Brother-in-Law’s Deaths’, only they been in the ground a week.”

  Roy snorted. “This week? Cade coming home will be news for months to come.”

  “Kolby left as a boy, but he’s coming back a man.” Walt Mews motioned for Roy to sit back down in the barber chair. “Looks like he’s been rode hard and put away wet.”

  Sawyer spat tobacco juice in a tin can he carried. “Heard tell he’s shot and killed ten men.”

  “Some say twenty,” Roy said.

  Walt snipped the final bits of hair around Roy’s ear. “More like fifty.” Then he shook out the barber cape. Reaching into his pocket, he plucked out a coin and flipped it to Roy. “You win. I bet he wouldn’t come.”

  “I knew he would,” Roy said, chuckling as he pocketed the windfall. “Mac and Senda raised him right.”

  “Humph. He’s ornery, if you ask me. Run him off once with a shotgun for tying my cats’ tails together,” Sawyer complained. “Nearly killed each other afore I got ’em loose.”

  “He was full of it, all right,” Walt agreed, glancing out the front door.

  Adolescent boys playing marbles around the hitching post abandoned their shiny agates and shooters and raced to watch the arrival of Winterborn’s most notorious citizen.

  “He wasn’t all that bad as a kid,” Walt mused. “When my Edna hurt her back, he showed up to weed her rose garden. Then he sat a spell with her to eat the sugar cookies she baked him. Seems like he was a right thoughtful young’un.”

  Sawyer grunted. “The boy’s made hisself quite a reputation.”

  “The missus don’t hold with all that killin’, but I say a man’s got to do what he’s got to do.” Walt closed the shop’s door. “A man with a price on his head expects trouble.”

  Roy snickered. “That little redhead’s been in a snit for fifteen years, thinking he wasn’t going to show up. The girl’s ill-tempered as a hornet. The wife sent me over to the store this morning for flour and oatmeal, and Zoe nearly took my head off.”

  “Hard to believe she was sweet on Cade at one time.”

  Sawyer nodded. “Yeah, you’d think she’da had better sense.”

  Walt straightened the shelf beside the mirror in front of his barber chair, lining up pungent-smelling hair tonics alongside each customer’s personalized mug, painted by Edna Mews’s questionable artistic hand. “Zoe’s daddy, may his soul rest in peace, would’ve stripped the hide off Cade if he’d known those two were sweet on each other.”

  Roy got up to stretch. “He knew. He just couldn’t do nothin’ about it.”

  “I say it’s good Kolby left when he did. Zoe might not have married Jim Bradshaw if he’d stuck around,” Walt said.

  The men looked toward the front window as Cade’s brown-and-white pinto trotted by.

  Sawyer shook his head. “Wonder how long he’s gonna stay?”

  “Just long enough to find his sister’s brood a good home, I’ll wager.” Walt patted his pocket. “I got a silver dollar says he’s not planning to raise those kids. Men like Kolby don’t stay anywhere long.”

  “Times are hard. Won’t be easy to find a family eager to take on four extra mouths to feed,” Sawyer said.

  Roy lifted a shoulder. “I heard Zoe wants the kids, but I don’t know how she thinks she could take care of ’em. Jim left her a mountain of debts when he died, and she can’t keep the wolf from the door as it is.”

  Walt polished his spectacles with a cloth, his eyes still following the rider. “I heard she’s got some real financial woes with the store. That little woman’s seen her share of trouble.”

  Roy scratched his head. “It’ll be interestin’ to see how she and Cade take to each other after all these years.”

  Sawyer chuckled as he got up and put on his battered hat. “Yep. Real interestin’.”

  Chapter Two

  A grin played at the corners of Cade’s mouth as he rode through town. Winterborn hadn’t changed.

  Old Man Thompson peeked out the land office window, checking his watch as though he had some place to be. Walt was looking out the barbershop window, making bets on the chances of him showing up. Cade chuckled, thinking about how he and Ben Pointer had often snuck Walt’s Police Gazette out of the shop and read it behind the livery.

  Bet my last silver dollar that same row of mugs with Edna’s silly pictures is still on the shelf in front of Walt’s chair. His grin widened when he thought of those mugs. Bless her heart, no one thought of Edna as an artist except Edna.

  Milly Mason’s millinery boutique still sat above the barbershop. Ladies favored the outside entrance to avoid the “unsavory” atmosphere of Walt’s shop below. The men’s salty language had put a bloom on many a sensitive cheek.

  Unless someone had struck gold, very few in town could afford Milly’s fancy Eastern hats, and it appeared that fifteen years hadn’t changed her clientele.

  Nodding, Cade graciously doffed his hat to a couple of well-dressed ladies about to enter the millinery.

  The image of his mother ogling Milly’s hats weighed heavily on his mind. Senda Kolby wasn’t able to afford even the ribbons from one of Milly’s bonnets, much less the whole fine creation. But she never complained. As she said, she prayed for the best, expected the worst, and thanked God for what he gave her.

  The smile faded. He could a
fford a hundred bonnets now, but Ma wasn’t around to enjoy them. Regret hit him hard. Word of his folks’ death had reached him six weeks after their burial. Pa had died from a farm accident; Ma, a month later, from pneumonia. He tried not to think about family. Or settling down to a good life with kids and a wife. He would take care of Addy’s business and clear out as quick as possible. Winterborn wasn’t home anymore.

  The mare picked her way slowly down Main Street, approaching Ben Pointer’s blacksmith shop and livery stable. The sign over the door said Ben would shoe horses and oxen, sharpen plows, and repair farm implements.

  “Ben Pointer and Sons” registered. Ben was a couple of years older than Cade. Did he have boys big enough to help? A lot could happen in fifteen years.

  The jail came into sight. Was Pop Winslow still sheriff? Was he still handing out horehound sticks? Memories gripped Cade, deepening the ache like a branding iron hot in his belly. He’d known coming back wasn’t going to be easy.

  Up ahead, the old swing he and his sister, Addy, had played on still hung next to the windmill. Worn and frayed, the rope swayed loosely in the late summer breeze.

  Memories rushed back, and he blinked hard to clear the mist from his eyes. Him and Addy playing at the jail as youngsters or diving into the swimming hole. But now Addy was dead. Only thirty-two years old, and she was gone. Distance and years had failed to dim the closeness they shared. He might not have come back home as often as he should have, but he’d always known she was there. Each night as he’d gone to sleep in a cold bedroll before a waning campfire, he’d taken comfort in the thought that he had people who cared: Ma, Pa, and Addy—a family waiting for him, when or if he came back. Somehow it had made the days and nights more tolerable.