Ty's Heart: California Cowboys 3 Read online

  Ty’s Heart

  California Cowboys 3

  Selena Laurence

  Golden Age Press

  Copyright 2017 © Selena Laurence

  All Rights Reserved

  Copy Editing by LindaEdits.com

  Cover by Sweet and Spicy Design

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, sorted in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This contemporary romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

  For permission to use any portion of this material, please contact the author at: [email protected]

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  Contents

  About Ty’s Heart

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  Books by Selena Laurence

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  The Czar

  1. Mick

  2. Solana

  3. Mick

  4. Solana

  5. Mick

  About the Author

  About Ty’s Heart

  She's come back to steal his heart.

  Ty Jenkins is a good man. For five long years he's devoted his life to his young daughter, Katie, giving everything he's got to make sure she won't miss the one thing she can't have--a mother. When that very woman blows back into town, Ty's world is turned upside down. He'd do anything to care for Katie, but caring for her gets complicated when he still has feelings for the woman who abandoned them both.

  Jodi Morgan has made a lot of mistakes in her life, and the biggest one of all was giving up her infant daughter the day she was born. But now she's back in Big Sur, California, determined to be there for her girl however she can. What Jodi didn't count on was the way she feels about Katie's father. Between his devotion to Katie and his work-honed body, Ty is one hell of an attractive package.

  As two parents begin a journey to do what's best for their child, they rediscover the feelings they once had for one another. Can Ty trust Jodi not to leave again? Has she come to be part of Katie's future? Or will she steal his heart?

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  "Laurence’s tightly woven story is a superb mix of sexual and political tension that’s certain to please fans of both." — Publisher's Weekly review of THE KINGMAKER

  "Delicious and Intriguing." — Lauren Blakely, NYT Bestselling Author on A LUSH BETRAYAL

  “Selena Laurence has the ability to bring to life complex characters you instantly start rooting for from page one. Passion, humor, and a sexy hero all make for one read you don’t want to miss.” — Ilsa Madden-Mills, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author on PLAYING WITH FIRE

  "I totally fell in love with Nico and Tess’s story." — Cindi Madden, USA TODAY Bestselling Author on THE HEIR

  "The plot is deftly written and readers will be totally engrossed in the story" — InD'Tale Magazine review of A LUSH BETRAYAL

  “Selena Laurence delivers on the promise of heat, and love with her sexy romances!” — Nana Malone, USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Books by Selena Laurence

  The Lush Rockstar Series

  A Lush Betrayal (Lush 1)

  Loving a Lush (Lush 2)

  Lowdown and Lush (Lush 3)

  A Lush Reunion (Lush 4)

  The Rhapsody Rockstar Series

  A Lush Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  Racing to Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  Dreaming of Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novella)

  Addicted to Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  The Powerplay Series

  Prince of the Press (A Powerplay Novella)

  The Kingmaker (A Powerplay Novel)

  POTUS (A Powerplay Novel)

  SCOTUS (A Powerplay Novel)

  The California Cowboys Series

  Cade’s Loss (California Cowboys One)

  Vaughn’s Pride (California Cowboys Two)

  Ty’s Heart (California Cowboys Three)

  Standalones

  The Heir: A Standalone Greek Billionaire Romance

  Pax (Lush the Next Gen)

  The Czar: A Standalone Hockey Billionaire Romance

  The Hiding From Love Series

  Falling for Trouble

  Secrets in a Kiss

  Concealed by a Kiss

  Playing with Fire

  1

  Ty stood and watched her as she gazed out at the ocean beyond the railing of the deck. He remembered the first time he’d laid eyes on her almost six years ago. She’d been standing behind the counter of his aunt’s coffee shop, all that pale blonde hair piled in a mess on top of her head. Her cornflower-blue eyes—eyes he knew as well as his own now—sparkled when she smiled at customers, and he’d felt it immediately. As if a bolt of lightning had struck him, he’d wanted that girl. He’d wanted that sparkle and glow to be for him.

  And for a brief time, it was.

  But now, as he quietly watched her, none of the sparkle was there anymore. None of the vibrancy that had been so magnetic when they’d known each other earlier. No, Jodi was different. He could see it in the set of her shoulders, the way she held her arms so tight against her body. Then she turned and looked at him, and it was in her eyes. It was breath stealing, the sorrow he saw there, but he steeled himself against it. Closed himself off and let a layer of armor wind around his heart and his body. Because no matter how sad she might be, she was here to upend his life, to try to take the single most important thing he had, and even if it made her sad for the rest of her life, he wasn’t about to give her what she wanted.

  Katie wasn’t negotiable.

  “You came,” she said, giving him a small smile as she turned more fully, the thin embroidered cotton dress she wore blowing around her thighs in the breeze.

  Her hair was still that same shade of platinum it had always been—so rare for an adult to be that blonde naturally, but Jodi looked like the fae out of some Nordic fairy tale, all fair skin, white-blonde hair, and pale blue eyes. She was tall at five ten, he was taller at six two, and she was strong—long legs, wide shoulders, narrow hips—but buxom as well, a Viking warrior princess.

  He gave himself a little shake, remembering that if she wasn’t exactly the enemy now, she sure as hell wasn’t his friend.

  “Surely you didn’t expect me to find out you were in town and just ignore it?” he answered, walking to where she stood at the railing on the deck of Lynn�
��s coffee shop, which was closed for the day.

  She watched him, her lips trembling just a touch, showing she was as uncomfortable with this as he was.

  “No, I guess not.” She looked back out at the water.

  “Jodi?” he asked quietly after a few moments. “What are you doing here? I thought we settled this last year.”

  She sighed, then turned to him. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

  He shrugged, glancing away from her because, dammit, those eyes. Those eyes without the sparkle nearly broke him in two, and he couldn’t afford to be weak. Not now. Not with her.

  “How about at the beginning?”

  She shook her head. “That’s not the part that matters. All that matters is the end. The day I woke up and realized that nothing in my life was ever going to be right again as long as I didn’t have her.”

  He stiffened. Fuck. He’d known it was coming, but damn, it cut through him like a hot knife through butter.

  “No.”

  “Just hear me out—”

  “No.”

  “Ty—”

  He whipped toward her, getting so far in her face, her could see her pupils dilate, feel her warm breath on his skin, hear the little gasp she made as she startled at his advance.

  “You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to give her up and then change your mind. Leave her with me for almost five years to diaper and feed and teach and love, to raise every single day, and then decide you want her back.”

  “It’s not like that. If you’ll let me—”

  “I. Said. No!” he bellowed.

  Then they both stopped, staring at one another, and as tears welled up in her eyes, the fury drained out of him, leaving him so incredibly tired. And heartsick. Sad that he couldn’t give Katie everything she deserved. Angry that this woman had taken so much from his daughter, and yet he still had…feelings of some sort for her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice much quieter now. “I didn’t mean to yell. But the answer is no. She has a family that loves her, a home that’s safe and secure, friends, a community. You’re not allowed to disrupt that. We had an agreement. I’m sorry if it’s been hard on you, but you made your choice, and you can’t go back.”

  He looked her in the eye. “Katie has everything she needs.” It was a lie, he knew it, but he wasn’t about to admit it to Jodi, so he turned and started back toward his truck parked in front of the café. Long strides ate up the deck as his heart burned in his chest.

  “She doesn’t have me.” Jodi’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was crystal clear, and in spite of what he’d just done and said, she wasn’t angry, simply determined.

  “Like I said,” he retorted without turning around. “She has everything she needs.”

  “Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bunk,” Dirk chided Ty as they worked side by side carrying bales of hay into the family barn.

  Ty grunted, lifting a bale off the back of the truck and swinging it into an empty stall, where he dropped it unceremoniously.

  “Just tired. I stayed up too late working on the health certificates for the batch going to auction next week.” Ty’s family owned one of California’s largest cattle ranches, and they were in the process of going organic. It was work he loved, normally, and the organic component had been his brainchild, but today he couldn’t seem to gather the energy to give a damn.

  Dirk spat a stream of tobacco juice into one of several cans nailed to posts and fencing around the barn. Ty’s older brother, Cade, had developed the system to keep the old man from spitting all over the floors of the barns and chicken houses. Dirk had been with Big Sur ranch since before Ty and his brothers were born. There was no telling him what to do, so you had to figure out creative ways to manage him.

  “I thought it might have something to do with the blonde you were with on the café deck yesterday afternoon.”

  Ty shot a glance at Dirk, his lips tightening into a grimace. “You weren’t supposed to see that. No one was.”

  “How long has she been back?”

  “She texted me two days ago.”

  “That the first time you’ve heard from her since she left?”

  Ty had never told anyone that she’d been back once before. Nearly eight months ago, when she’d shown up at the town’s annual Boots and Brews event. He’d managed to send her away that time, but now she was back, and seemed more determined than ever.

  “No,” he admitted. “It’s not the first time she’s contacted me. There was one other.”

  “And she wants to see Katie?” Dirk asked softly, his old eyes cloudy with concern. He

  loved Ty’s daughter as much as anyone, serving the role of grandfather to her since Ty’s own parents had died shortly before he met Jodi. Dirk lived on the ranch, so he’d watched her every day of Katie’s life.

  “She can want.” Ty grunted, lifting another bale. “It’s not going to happen.”

  Dirk nodded, his expression somber.

  They worked in silence for a few minutes until the tension finally got to Ty. “What? Just spit it out along with the tobacco. You obviously have an opinion, so let’s hear it.”

  Dirk paused in his work, spit more juice—onto the ground next to the truck this time—and chewed on his cheek for a moment. “A child needs a mother.”

  “She has a mother,” Ty snarled, anger swirling in his chest. “Aunt Lynn’s been taking care of her since the day she was born. She moved into the house to do it. And now she has Nina too. Someone younger who can do the fancy hairstyles and talk to her about boys when she’s older. The kid has more family looking after her than most kids with two parents will ever get. She’s fine.”

  “She is. And you’ve done a great job. But Nina and Cade will have their own kids, and while Lynn’s a healthy woman, she’s not getting any younger.” He paused. “And neither am I.”

  Ty took a breath, tried to calm the pounding of his heart, the sick feeling that churned in his gut. “I know you mean well, and you always want the best for her, but there is no way in hell I’m going to let the woman who walked away from her back into her life. Katie may have the occasional question now, but imagine the upset if she’s rejected at this age. How she’d feel if she got to know Jodi and then had that taken away.” He shook his head. “No. It’s too big a risk. I won’t disrupt her life like that.”

  Dirk held up his hands. “I get it. And you’re her daddy. You need to do what you think is best, but if Jodi’s back and she really wants to see her, you might not get the choice.”

  And that was what terrified Ty more than anything. The idea of Jodi lawyering up and getting the courts involved. He had legal documents giving him full custody of Katie. Cade had made sure Ty’s bases were all covered when Katie was born, but Jodi was her mother. Her name was right there alongside his on the birth certificate. And even in the twenty-first century, courts were heavily biased toward mothers.

  “Yeah, I know,” he answered sadly. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Let’s hope,” Dirk answered.

  2

  Jodi straightened her skirt before looking in the window of the Big Sur coffee shop, owned by Ty’s Aunt Lynn. Jodi had been twenty-two the first time she’d driven into Big Sur, she and her best friend from college, Darcy Lee, taking a year-long road trip before they settled into regular careers and the rest of their lives.

  The plan had been to stop somewhere, pick up whatever work they could find, and when they got bored, they’d move on to the next locale. But early on, they’d landed in Big Sur, Jodi had gotten a job at the coffee shop, and then there’d been Ty.

  Her mind traveled back to those early days with him. He was mourning the recent deaths of his parents, and she’d wanted nothing more than to take the sadness out of his eyes. He was tall, dark, handsome in a way the hippie guys she usually ended up with couldn’t match. They’d been casual, knowing she wasn’t going to stay, but she’d realized early on her heart was more invested than
she’d like it to be. Then the unthinkable had happened and she’d gotten pregnant, in spite of the pill. They’d agreed to be exclusive while she was in town, so there was no question who the baby belonged to.

  Ty offered to marry her. She politely declined. They barely knew each other after all. It had only been a few weeks. But then the panic set in. Jodi had seen life as a single mother up close, watching her own mother struggle for years. Her mother had been buried under poverty, under a burden she never wanted. While Ty seemed to be the kind of standup guy you’d want to father your kid, and God knew his family had enough money to take care of child support, Jodi was terrified. That she’d end up with a child, alone, poor, trying to scrape by like her own mother had all those years. It wore down a woman’s soul, wrecked her heart, stole her youth.

  Jodi couldn’t bear the idea of doing it to herself or her baby. So she told him she wanted to put the baby up for adoption, and he said he’d do it—raise the baby himself, with help from his family. He’d inherited his parents’ business; he had a house, a job, two brothers, an aunt. He was set up to provide the baby with a home that she never could. Big Sur was a tight-knit community. The baby would have a charmed childhood in the coastal town. The kind of childhood Jodi had only dreamed of.