Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cade's Convenience: Cowboys of Cauldron Valley, #2
    Cade's Convenience: Cowboys of Cauldron Valley, #2
    Cade's Convenience: Cowboys of Cauldron Valley, #2
    Ebook134 pages2 hours

    Cade's Convenience: Cowboys of Cauldron Valley, #2

    By Caroline Lee

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Cade Cauldron is good at worrying. It's what he does. That, and manage the nutrition of the racing horses on his family's ranch. He's devoted to making the place a continuing success, and like 80% of his worrying is about Cauldron Valley Ranch... Right up until his grandfather tells him and his brothers and cousins that it's time for them to marry. Then he's got a whole other pile of worries.

     

    Dr. Jami Boatright has made a career out of studying modern-day marriages of convenience, and her bestselling books on the subject have made her a common name when it comes to the psychology and anthropology of marriage. But there's one thing lacking from her research…she's never actually been married, much less experienced a marriage of convenience. But when she arrives at the ranch, studying the latest Cauldron cousin's meeting-at-the-altar, Cade realizes she's exactly what he needs: A wife who will say yes for reasons of her own. A real-life modern marriage of convenience.

     

    But after the "I Do"s, real trouble starts, as they realize they don't know everything they thought they did about their new spouse. And even worse…these revelations don't seem to matter to their hearts, which keep forgetting this marriage has nothing to do with love.

    Or does it?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCaroline Lee
    Release dateApr 24, 2020
    ISBN9781393791829
    Cade's Convenience: Cowboys of Cauldron Valley, #2

    Read more from Caroline Lee

    Related to Cade's Convenience

    Titles in the series (14)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Gabriel & Holly

      Feb 8, 2021

      The first day was the most daunting. It helped that she’d arrived last night to settle herself in the cottage annexe before first contact this morning. Still, nerves attacked her as she stood before the door of the imposing but charming ivy-covered 1

      6 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 18, 2021

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 10, 2021

      Book Club
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Writer extra YOU CAN’T FIND THIS IN PRINT.

      Feb 1, 2020

      1. BIRDS, AGAIN ashwell, massachusetts, 1871 Wonders, wonders! —miles pearson, the darkening glass (p. 4) The first of the birds Caroline mistook for her own mind’s work. When the streak of red crossed the kitchen windowpane, fast, disastrous-bright,

      9 min read

    • Article

      This Family Saga Finds Grace And Beauty In Ordinary Lives, Fully Lived

      Jun 10, 2021

      Simon Van Booy's new novel Night Came With Many Stars follows several generations of a Kentucky family, their crossroads and choices, their curses and hard memories, their luck and their chances.

      3 min read

    • Article

      After A Cliff, A Chasm

      Mar 1, 2019

      After A Cliff, A Chasm
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hybrid Vigor

      Dec 15, 2018

      By the glow of the headlights, Reney counted again. A calf was gone. A bawling cow trotting ruts into the fence line confirmed Reney’s count. She shoved her work gloves into the back pocket of a pair of Wes’s greasy coveralls. She’d slipped them on o

      25 min read

    • Article

      Rose - Tinted Glasses

      Nov 10, 2021

      From the corner of her eye, Becca watched a small pack of drunk pixies adding salt into her grandmother’s bone china sugar pot. The sugar pot was the oldest thing in the house, even older than grandmother herself. There would be hell to pay if it bro

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Wrong Shampoo

      Apr 10, 2022

      Brandy scoured the rows of bubble gum bright shampoo bottles. How much time had passed already? She looked to the front of the store but couldn’t see the checkout lines. She had only been to Jeff’s apartment once so far and didn’t remember what brand

      16 min read

    • Article

      The Weaker Sister: When we have to evacuate Earth, only the strong will survive.

      Oct 13, 2016

      What on earth was mine? Our underground domicile’s concrete walls mapped with veins of mold and ice, the drip-drip-drip of dirty melt from the ceiling into four rusty pots, the gray shapes the water made when we flung it out against the frozen drifts

      25 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Safety

      Mar 1, 2023

      IT WAS only a dream, a bad dream, and nothing else. The man in Vidal’s dream was stalking a woman, spying on her from the shadows, following her down a dark alley as she sought refuge from a downpour. The woman was vaguely familiar to Vidal, though h

      13 min read

    • Article

      Bye Bye Baby…

      Jan 14, 2021

      Bye Bye Baby…
      4 min read

    • Article

      At Her Historic Ancestral Home Belvoir Castle The Duchess Of rutland Is An Open Book As She Talks Candidly About Her Extraordinary Life In A New Autobiography

      Oct 10, 2022

      At Her Historic Ancestral Home Belvoir Castle The Duchess Of rutland Is An Open Book As She Talks Candidly About Her Extraordinary Life In A New Autobiography
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Ballad Of Cosmic Dave

      May 5, 2022

      The Ballad Of Cosmic Dave
      6 min read

    • Article

      There Is No Crime Here

      Jul 18, 2023

      There Is No Crime Here
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reading Corner

      Oct 9, 2023

      Family sagas tend to be filled with tensions and secrets. This one is about a group of people who, on the face of it, are leading lovely lives in a beautiful place. Not far beneath the surface though lies darkness and trouble. And a whole lot more is

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Chicken Line

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Chicken Line
      14 min read

    • Article

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • Article

      Marked with SILVER

      Jan 17, 2024

      Marked with SILVER
      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cade's Convenience

    5/5

    4 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Cade's Convenience - Caroline Lee

      Chapter 1

      Ah. There’s a fresh batch .

      Cade Cauldron pushed his hat back off his forehead, blew out a breath, and stared down at the pile of horse manure near the toe of his left boot.

      Seems like I keep missing Moonbeam’s deposits…and who in tarnation would think I’d ever worry this much over a steaming pile of crap?

      There were times he wondered about his life choices, yessiree.

      But…

      Rubbing the back of his neck, Cade looked up. From where he stood, surrounded by the natural beauty of Montana, he could see the mountains looming majestically in the distance, and despite standing over a pile of poop, the air was the best he’d ever smelled.

      He might not have guessed he’d wind up studying horse manure when he was younger, but he sure couldn’t imagine living his life in any other place but Cauldron Valley, Montana.

      And he certainly couldn’t imagine working at any other place than on his family’s ancestral ranch.

      Well, best get to earnin’ my keep.

      Smiling ruefully at himself, Cade reached for the back pocket of his jeans and the pair of disposable latex gloves he always kept there for just such an occasion.

      He pulled them on, stretching them over his big hands, remembering lab work he’d done all those years ago at University of Montana. They’d made jokes about the gloves then, and the memory always made him chuckle.

      Dropping to his haunches, he laced his fingers together to make sure the gloves were snug.

      Excellent.

      Time to get digging.

      Cade barely hesitated as he plunged the fingers of his right hand into the pile. Still warm! That was a good sign.

      Flies had started to gather, so as he pulled a handful of the manure out to spread it across the dirt, he pulled his hat off with his left hand and waved it around. A few of the more tenacious pests refused to budge, but at least he could see now.

      Looks pretty good. You know…for crap.

      Moonbeam was pregnant with twins, which was rare, and more than a little dangerous. Cade and his cousin Jim, the ranch’s horse trainer, had spent the last nine months making sure she was as healthy as possible.

      Two more months to go, although they expected her to pop early, if Cade’s research was any indication. Multiple foal births tended not to go to full term, much like humans. Heck, Cade should know, considering he was one of two sets of triplets born at Cauldron Valley Ranch, all in the same week.

      He and his brothers, Deck and Wyatt, had grown up on the ranch after their parents had been killed in a freak moose hunting accident. The same accident which had also killed their aunt and uncle, who were the parents of the other set of triplets, Bob, Jim, and Ted.

      The six boys had been raised by their grandparents and were all devoted to the ranch as much as anyone could be. Each of them worked on the ranch, and were all just as worried about Moonbeam as Cade was.

      Cade studied the manure and determined it looked as though she was getting plenty of alfalfa, but he was worried over how much was going through her.

      Without the proper amount of protein getting to them, Moonbeam’s foals might not be growing as well as they needed to be.

      He slid the hat back on his head and reached down with his other hand to pull apart a particularly dense clump.

      Hmm.

      He frowned down at the mostly digested evidence of the mare’s health, and began mentally cataloguing the supplements he could identify.

      Cautiously, Cade lifted the clump to his nose, sniffing, even as he crumbled it between his fingers. The texture and smell wasn’t bad—not great, but he’d seen much worse from other pregnant mares—and probably nothing to worry about.

      Snorting softly, he tossed the remaining clump down onto the pile, startling even the most stubborn flies into taking flight.

      Nothing to worry about?

      Cade didn’t need an excuse to worry…he was good at it.

      He draped his forearms across his knees, leaned back on his heels, and frowned down at the pile of manure.

      All in all, Moonbeam seemed healthy. He watched what she ate carefully, but it was good to see exactly how much she and her foals were actually getting out of it.

      Or rather, what was coming out of her.

      She’d been one of their top racers three years ago, and Jim had gotten a mint from the buyer who’d purchased her last foal. Jim had mated her with The Flash, another champion, last fall and had high hopes for this breeding, even before they’d discovered she was pregnant with twins.

      "Something in the water," Pops had said with a chuckle, but the Cauldron cousins hadn’t been too surprised over the bonus foal.

      All their lives, they’d known there was something a bit magical when it came to Cauldron Valley Ranch.

      Whether it was the water’s fault or not, it certainly hadn’t hurt Cade’s career any. The supplements he grew here—or rather, oversaw the growing of, at least—did really well. And they were the reason he’d been able to start his own nutrient company on the side a few years back, selling his custom blends to neighboring ranches and beyond.

      As the fame of Cauldron Valley’s racing horses grew, so too had the popularity of the cousins’ individual enterprises; Deck couldn’t keep up with the demand for his leatherwork and custom saddles, for instance, and Cade’s business was doing so well, he’d had to hire a manager just so he could keep his attention on the ranch, where it belonged.

      Maybe I should market this pregnant mare mixture I created for Moonbeam.

      It wasn’t the first time he’d thought of it and wondered if he had the time. Handling a twin pregnancy would be difficult, but…

      The wind shifted, blowing the smell of the manure back at him, and Cade felt the corners of his lips tugging upward as he pushed himself to his feet.

      Time for lunch anyhow. Better get back to the office and—

      He turned…and nearly dumped his pretty—and unexpected—observer on her butt.

      Whoa there!

      The words burst from his mouth as he thrust out a hand to steady her, but she screeched and jerked out of his reach, which ultimately ended with her on her butt anyway.

      He cursed under his breath when he realized he was still wearing the blue latex gloves—covered in crap, no less—and she, rightfully, didn’t want him touching her. Which meant, when she did lose her balance and go sprawling on her butt, he couldn’t do anything but stand there and watch.

      They made a hell of a tableau, the two of them, frozen there the way they were.

      Him, still standing, tall and useless, with his blue-and-crap-covered-hands spread wide and a wince on his face.

      And her, staring up at him, shocked and sprawled in the dirt.

      At least she missed the manure.

      Jami had arrived at the ranch only a few days ago, accompanying Dr. Lachele Simpson, a matchmaker businesswoman, who’d arranged Cade’s cousin Bob’s marriage. Bob had been married on Saturday to a woman he’d only met once they were at the altar.

      Dr. Lachele brought along the prettiest assistant Cade had ever seen, and her name was Jami Boatright.

      He simply stood there, staring down at her, unable to make his voice work.

      "Were you smelling that horse poop?" she finally blurted.

      He winced again. Sorry—yeah, I mean. Sorry.

      Cade’s brain finally began working again, and he scrambled to remove the gloves from his hands, expertly turning them inside out to keep the manure germs inside. He shoved one inside the other, while begging his heartbeat to steady, so he might appear smooth.

      Smooth?

      Too late for that, she caught you sniffing crap!

      Clutching the gloves in his left hand, he reached down with his right. Again, I’m real sorry. Are you okay?

      She hesitated before reaching up to take his hand, and he tried not to wince again.

      But the moment her hand was in his, Cade noticed a fizz of energy crawl up his arm. Her big blue eyes met his, and all the air suddenly disappeared.

      What the heck?

      This is Montana…where the air is clean and plentiful and—

      Oh. He’d forgotten to breathe.

      So after sucking in a deep gulp of desperately needed air, he managed to lift her effortlessly to her feet.

      But for some reason, he couldn’t seem to release her.

      And —this was interesting—she didn’t seem too eager for him to let her go either.

      So they stood there, near a pile of poop, and simply stared into each other’s eyes, while he also remembered to breathe.

      Cade had met Jami at the reception—thanks to Dr. Lachele’s introduction, and absolutely had not noticed the sparkle in her amazing blue eyes, or the way her hips were rounded in all the right places. Or the fact her boobs were—

      Whoa there, cowboy! Pops raised you to be a gentleman.

      Jami glanced down at their joined hands for a moment, before apparently realizing they were still connected. She flinched and jerked away again, and he let her go quickly, as if they’d both just been burned.

      Sorry, he mumbled again. He ducked his chin and hoped he wasn’t flushing.

      Uh… When she stepped back and shoved her hands in her back pocket, he tried not to feel hurt. So you were…um…studying the poop?

      It

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1