“No One Wants Me,” She Sobbed — Then a Cowboy Made a Choice That Changed Everything

Chapter 2

The Ludlows left with the particular offense of people denied something they felt entitled to. The matron retreated to the boxcar without a backward look. And the crowd watched, whispering, as the stranger walked the two children off that platform — the boy riding on his hip because the boy had reached for him with his eyes, and the girl walking with her spine straight as a fence post despite the split lip and the bare feet.

He’s lost his mind. Two children. What’s a man like that going to do with two children? Give it a month. He’ll send them back. Poor things. Out of one bad situation and straight into another.

Gideon Cole kept walking. He had spent five years not caring what Falcon Hollow thought of him, and he was not about to start now.

Behind the general store sat his wagon. He lifted the boy onto the bench first — the boy went down easily, bonelessly, gripping the bear the whole way — then offered the girl his hand. She climbed up mostly on her own, refusing to need more help than she absolutely had to accept. He pulled a wool blanket from under the seat and laid it across them without a word, checked the traces, and drove north out of town.