The Men of Medicine Ridge - Diana Palmer [0]
DIANA PALMER
“Nobody does it better.”
—Award-winning author Linda Howard
“Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller who captures the essence of what a romance should be.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“Nobody tops Diana Palmer when it comes to delivering pure, undiluted romance.
I love her stories.”
—New York Times bestselling author
Jayne Ann Krentz
“The dialogue is charming, the characters likable and the sex sizzling….”
—Publishers Weekly on Once in Paris
“This story is a thrill a minute—one of Ms. Palmer’s best.”
—Rendezvous on Lord of the Desert
“Diana Palmer does a masterful job of stirring the reader’s emotions.”
—Lezlie Patterson, the Reading Eagle
(Reading, PA) on Lawless
Also by Diana Palmer
RENEGADE
LAWLESS
DIAMOND SPUR
DESPERADO
THE TEXAS RANGER
LORD OF THE DESERT
THE COWBOY AND THE LADY
MOST WANTED
FIT FOR A KING
PAPER ROSE
RAGE OF PASSION
ONCE IN PARIS
AFTER THE MUSIC
ROOMFUL OF ROSES
CHAMPAGNE GIRL
PASSION FLOWER
DIAMOND GIRL
FRIENDS AND LOVERS
CATTLEMAN’S CHOICE
LADY LOVE
THE RAWHIDE MAN
DIANA PALMER
THE MEN OF MEDICINE RIDGE
CONTENTS
THE WEDDING IN WHITE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
CIRCLE OF GOLD
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
THE WEDDING IN WHITE
Chapter 1
“I’ll never get married!” Vivian wailed. “He won’t let me have Whit here at all. I only wanted him to come for supper, and now I have to call him and say it’s off! Mack’s just hateful!”
“There, there,” Natalie Brock soothed, hugging the younger girl. “He’s not hateful. He just doesn’t understand how you feel about Whit. And you have to remember, he’s been totally responsible for you since you were fifteen.”
“But he’s my brother, not my father,” came the sniffling reply. Vivian dashed tears off on the back of her hand. “I’m twenty-two,” she added in a plaintive tone. “He can’t tell me what to do anymore, anyway!”
“He can, on Medicine Ridge Ranch,” Natalie reminded her wryly. Medicine Ridge Ranch was the largest spread in this part of Montana—even the town was named after it. “He’s the big boss.”
“Humph!” Vivian dabbed at her red eyes with a handkerchief. “Only because Daddy left it to him.”
“That isn’t quite true,” came the amused rejoinder. “Your father left him a ranch that was almost bankrupt, on land the bank was trying to repossess.” She waved her hand around the expensive Victorian furnishings of the living room. “All this came from his hard work, not a will.”
“And so whatever McKinzey Donald Killain wants, he gets,” Vivian raged.
It was odd to hear him called by his complete name. For years, everyone around Medicine Ridge, Montana, which had grown up around the Killain ranch, had called him Mack. It was an abbreviation of his first name, which few of his childhood friends could pronounce.
“He only wants you to be happy,” Natalie said softly, kissing the flushed cheek of the blond girl. “I’ll go talk to him.”
“Would you?” Bright blue eyes looked up hopefully.
“I will.”
“You’re just the nicest friend anybody ever had, Nat,” Vivian said fervently. “Nobody else around here has the guts to say anything to him,” she added.
“Bob and Charles don’t feel comfortable telling him what to do.” Natalie defended the younger brothers of the household. Mack had been responsible for all three of his siblings from his early twenties. He was twenty-eight now, crusty and impatient, a real hell-raiser whom most people found intimidating. Natalie had teased him and picked at him from her teens, and she still did. She adored him, despite his fiery temper and legendary impatience. A lot of that ill humor came from having one eye, and she knew it.
Soon after the accident that could as easily have killed him as blinded him, she told him that the rakish patch over his left eye made him look like a sexy pirate. He’d told her to go home and mind her own damned business. She ignored him and continued to help Vivian