To Love A Cowboy

Chapter 1

To Love A Cowboy

Chapter 1

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Ephraim Lewis awoke with a start and thought surely he was dreaming when he opened his eyes to see Stevie Steele standing at his bedside, she was his Beautiful neighbor- One of the famous Steele sisters. Not one of the three girls followed society norms, all of them were better ranch hands than most men he had met. Not to mention their grandfather- Billy and Uncle Jamie owned and operated one of the largest and most successful ranches in the state of Colorado!

Many of the women in their small town talked of all three sisters in a very distasteful way, not one of them owned a dress! And many said bad things of their late mother who had passed away when they were small children- but he never liked to listen to gossip.

He found all the sisters beautiful, but it was Stevie- he thought- who looked like an angel. Her eyes were nearly colorless, gray even. Her hair was pale the color of a wheat field, and her skin tanned. She was to him someone his sisters could look up to, a role model, a real woman of the west.

"Mr. Lewis" she spoke his name softly, her voice he noticed was slightly raspy. Though he had spoken to Billy and Jamie several times Stevie was never one to speak very much. Not in front of him anyway.

"Please" he said looking around noticing all at once he wasn't in his own room "call me Ephraim... where am I?" This was a much grander looking room than his, the walls were wooden, and the ceilings were high, the bed was large with a fur blanket covering him, this had to be the Steele's home, but how did he end up here?

He looked again to Stevie; she wore a somber expression.

"There was an accident..." she looked at him very seriously "Don't you remember being shot?"

He leaned his head back on the fluffy pillow behind him and closed his eyes. When he had discovered three unknown men on his ranch taking his cows, he had lost it and, his shoulder- he was shot! His sisters?

"Sophie and Tess are here they're safe." she said as if reading his mind

He sighed relief and rubbed his forehead, had he fallen from his horse? "My head..." he said feeling nausea overtake him all at once. He closed his eyes once more and willed himself not to be sick.

Stevie left only momentarily and brought him, from the smell of it- Peppermint tea. He sipped it and offered his thanks.

"Mr. Lewis, glad to see you're up" Billy spoke much louder than Stevie as he walked into the room.

His mustache moved as he talked, and his brown eyes were kind. His hair was gray from age but his eyebrows were still the dark color his hair must have been in his youth.

"Thank you, Mr. Steele for your hospitality" Ephraim said sincerely. He knew the Steele's were good people.

"Of course, son" Billy said as he took a seat on the kitchen chair next to the bed "Can you remember what happened?" he asked seriously.

Stevie left the room then and Ephraim found himself wishing she would stay. He turned his attention back to the task at hand trying to remember the faces of these men. But he could only remember the one who shot him.

"There were three men... they had handkerchiefs over their mouths and hats they wore down low... but the one who shot me... he had a white stallion and a white gun. He had a scar next to his right eye..." as he spoke his mind went back to that night, how quickly everything had happened. The fear he had felt, not for himself but for his sister's. The feeling of helplessness had washed over him like a sudden rainstorm in the winter.