Handsome Widower’s Second Chance (Family of Love Series) (A Western Romance Story) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Ellie Atkinson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  Handsome Widower’s Second Chance

  CHARACTERS LIST

  *

  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

  EPILOGUE

  PREVIEW OF LOVE’S BATTLE WON

  Also By Elliee Atkinson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Handsome Widower’s Second Chance

  Family of Love Series

  Elliee Atkinson

  GREENHOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  A Personal Note From Ellie Atkinson

  Dedication

  About The Author

  Handsome Widower’s Second Chance

  CHARACTERS LIST

  *

  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

  *

  EPILOGUE

  *

  PREVIEW OF LOVE’S BATTLE WON

  Join My VIP Readers’ Club List

  Also By Elliee Atkinson

  Acknowledgement

  If You Have Enjoyed This Book…

  Publisher’s Notes

  Copyright © 2017 by ELLIEE ATKINSON & GREEN HOUSE PUBLISHING CO.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real or dead people, places, or events are not intentional and are the result of coincidence. The characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. 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, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author/publisher. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover designed by Ms Melody Simmons. Author has the copyrights to this cover.

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  A PERSONAL NOTE

  FROM ELLIEE ATKINSON

  To My Dearest Lovely Readers,

  Those female characters within my stories are women who displayed strong faith of love, knowing what they want to pursue in the Wild West.

  They are constantly seeking and believe the true love really exists as they are often being looked upon as an inferior gender. Because of these social stigma, it motivates them to overcome challenges they may face while waiting for the man of their dreams to appear.

  Will these insecurities and stigma encourages them in believing true love despite the differences and challenges in social standing that they will face during this Wild West period?

  Read on to find out the answers!

  Thank you very much for your strong support to my writing journey!

  With Hugs, Kisses and Love…

  DEDICATION

  “I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.”

  Alice Walker

  This Story Is Specially Dedicated To You, My Dearest Reader!

  It is with gratefulness and gratitude that I am writing to you this personal dedication.

  Thank you once again for giving me this opportunity to share with you my creative side of me.

  I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much I have enjoyed writing it!

  It is with such great support from you that keep us authors writing and writing, presenting to you with great and interesting stories.

  Have you checked out my other western historical romance books series?

  Click the link below to get started

  *** AMAZON USA ***

  Do you like what you have read?

  I would want to hear from you!

  Please do get in touch with me:

  https://www.facebook.com/EllieeAtkinsonBooks/

  [email protected]

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Elliee Atkinson is the author of many mail order brides stories and her alternate name is Rosie Attwood. Using Elliee Atkinson as her new pen-name, she spins out American historical western romance stories for readers that appreciate the romance that happened in the Old Wild West.

  Elliee loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance “Wild Montana Sky” by Debra Holland was inspired by the story perseverance and determination of the women from the wild west and how they overcome adversaries, fight for the love they deserved and desired.

  Many of her stories are based on her knowledge of the old west, although all the names, events, and places that may resemble or are similar to living people are only coincidental and fiction, of course.

  Elliee credits her wonderfully supportive partner and friend, Steven and her advance review reviewer
s for helping her to fine-tune her writing skills and allowing her creativity to explode.

  HANDSOME WIDOWER’S SECOND CHANCE

  A WESTERN ROMANCE STORY

  by

  ELLIEE ATKINSON

  and

  Green House Publishing Co.

  CHARACTERS LIST

  CHARACTERS LIST

  The following are a list of characters featured in this book #1.

  Collins’s Family:

  Adam Collins

  Wife: Holly Wesley Collins (deceased)

  Son: Max Collins

  Daughter: Riley Collins

  The Wesley’s Family:

  Father: Charles “Chuck” Wesley

  Mother: Caroline Wesley

  Daughter: Holly Wesley Collins (deceased)

  Daughter: Alice Wesley

  Son: Nathan Wesley

  Adam’s best friend: Mark Eames

  Woman in town: Missy Springfield

  School teacher: Miss Tina Berry

  Horse and Saddle bartender: Sam O’Reilly

  PROLOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  Holly Anne Collins had not seen a day as beautiful as this early summer day in June for some time. She was excited to go with her husband and two children on a picnic in the woods near their small shack home. She hesitated to think of it as a shack. Her husband, Adam, was a master with wood and had built the place with his own two hands… with the help of a few neighboring friends who had staked out some land in Arizona for themselves.

  The only city nearby was called Wickenburg and was growing larger daily as men came searching for gold. Adam was not one of those men, but the two of them often stayed up at night with their heads close together, having a chuckle at the thought that maybe they would someday stumble on a gold mine or stream and become richer than their wildest dreams.

  Adam and Holly settled just outside of Wickenburg, on a piece of land that had both fields and a stream, where she could grow a garden and he could hunt in the surrounding woods, and water would easily be accessible to them. Adam and his best friend and closest neighbor, Mark, had dug a well closer to their home so they would not have to travel all the way to the stream with buckets when they needed water.

  Holly’s family lived in Wickenburg but Adam’s were back in Wisconsin, where he was raised by a carpenter father and a seamstress mother. When they had come to Wickenburg, her family had become Adam’s.

  Adam had taken the day off from his job at the lumber mill to take the family on a picnic to celebrate little Riley’s birthday. She was turning eight and it was a special occasion for the whole family, as she had been a difficult birth and they weren’t sure she would live for very many years. Every birthday for her and her older brother, Max, was treated as a grand holiday.

  They took one of the big blankets with them, as well as a large picnic basket filled with goodies, including a closely guarded cake to honor the little girl. Adam made sure to chip off some ice from the block to keep their drinks cold. Holly, Adam, and each child helped to carry the blanket, food, and drinks into the woods by their home, not straying too far, in case wild animals or unfriendly Indians were about. They had only met a few Indians and none of them had proven to be dangerous. They kept to themselves, generally leaving the people of Wickenburg alone.

  Riley and Max, who was ten years old and proud of the fact that he was older than his sister, ran through the area of the clearing where they settled the blanket, pointing out strange flying insects and the beautiful flowers that surrounded them. Adam took the bucket of ice to the stream and placed it on the edge so the ice would stay frozen a bit longer.

  “Riley, Max, don’t go too far. I don’t want to lose sight of you.”

  “Mama, these flowers are so beautiful! Look!” Riley reached down and gathered a bunch in her hands, pulling them up with the stems attached so she could lace them together to make a flower crown. Once the blanket was spread out fully, the little girl came back and plopped down on one edge, dropping the flowers into her skirt, which she spread out like an apron. She proceeded to begin weaving the flower stems through each other until she had a perfect small crown. She moved to place it on her head but her brother stopped her.

  “Let me, Riley!” He said, running to kneel in front of her. Their parents watched as the little boy instructed his sister to get on her knees and lean her head down. “You are now Princess Riley Lucille Collins, someday to be Queen of Wickenburg! Look how pretty that is, Mama and Papa!” Max looked extremely serious while placing the crown on Riley’s small blond head.

  “She is beautiful!” Adam exclaimed. “Would you like some bread, my queen?” He held out a small chunk of bread, which Riley graciously took.

  “Thank you, Papa. But I’m not Queen yet! I still have to take over.”

  The adults laughed and gave each other loving glances. Adam put his arm around Holly, smiling at her. “You are a princess, though, my girl. This here is my queen.” Adam placed a soft kiss on his wife’s cheek.

  “Yuk!” Max scrunched up his face and turned away from his parents.

  “You won’t be saying that in a few years, Max. Just you wait.”

  “No, no,” Max shook his small head. “Not me. No girls.”

  Holly and Adam had to laugh. “We shall see, my boy.”

  The family ate their snacks, some baked potato chips Holly had made especially for them, chunks of bread, ham, and cheese, sliced fruit, and veggies from the garden. Max and Adam decided to begin a game of tag and wrestling, which they often did, while Riley and Holly went for a short walk through the wooded area around them.

  Adam and Max rolled around in the grass laughing when suddenly the sound of Riley screaming for her papa made them both jump up and stare into the woods for a moment before breaking into a run toward the sound of Riley’s voice. She and her mother hadn’t gone far.

  “Holly! Holly!”

  Adam ran toward his fallen wife. She was lying on her side in the middle of sticks, twigs, leaves, and rocks that had fallen along the pathway. When he reached her, and turned her to her back, he could see that she was already gone.

  For no reason that he could find, as he saw no outward marks on her body. She was gone.

  CHAPTER ONE

  A HAPPY FUNERAL

  A HAPPY FUNERAL

  “Would you look at that?” Adam looked in the direction his brother, Kyle, was pointing. Children of the small town had surrounded Riley and Max. They were laughing and chatting as if they were not at a funeral.

  “It doesn’t surprise me,” Adam responded. “Children are not meant to feel intense pain. They should be happy and playful as often as they can. Life can be very difficult and they will find that out in due time. For now, let them play.”

  Kyle nodded. “Holly was a superior woman, Adam. You were blessed to have her and that she was the mother of your children. My heart really does break for you losing her. She will be missed by so many.”

  Adam nodded. “Yes, I can tell.” He couldn’t help smiling at the atmosphere in the room. It was what Holly would have wanted. The crowd was a lot less somber than most of the funerals Adam had been to and he knew why. It was because of the bright light Holly had carried with her wherever she went. She sewed quilts, blankets, and clothes for the poor children in Wickenburg, as well as for some adults, along with her “sewing circle”. She had participated in plays their church put on, was always involved in holiday planning, and was a friend to everyone she met. He could think of no one who would have an unkind word to say about her.

  The pastor had already made his remarks and they had lowered Holly into the ground. The women had brought food and drinks to the cemetery, setting it all up on a table by a large tree near the grave.

  “She wouldn’t want a lot of sadness,” Kyle continued, pushing his hands down into the pockets of his suit pants. “She would have wanted smiles. If she was here, she would be telling jokes and enjoying the laughter.”

  “Maybe,” Adam replied, nodding.
“But, unfortunately, she isn’t here. And the pain of her loss is… almost too much to bear.”

  “Did Doc Brown say what happened?”

  “He thinks her heart gave out. She may have had a problem we didn’t know about.”

  “Did she get checkups? Was she having any trouble beforehand?”

  “No. Not that I know of. She never complained about anything wrong. But that was Holly anyway. She rarely complained. If she was in pain, it… it seems to me she would have kept it to herself.”