The cowboy and the baby When Rafferty Evans goes out in the pouring November rain to help a lost tourist find his way off his land, the rancher doesn't expect to return with an expectant mom. Jacey Lambert isn't just pregnant—she's about to give birth. Five hungry cowboys looking for a home-cooked meal aren't what Jacey imagined when she set out for the Texas Hill Country. Neither is having her baby delivered by Rafferty, a handsome widower who offered her shelter from the storm. With an alluring cook in the kitchen and an irresistible infant in the bunkhouse, it's beginning to feel more like Christmas at the ranch. But mother and daughter have to move on eventually, and when—if—they do, Rafferty knows his fragile heart will break all over again. Unless Rafferty can convince Jacey there's only one thing her new family is lacking—him!

With this Dickensian tale from America’s heartland, New York Times writer and columnist Dan Barry tells the harrowing yet uplifting story of the exploitation and abuse of a resilient group of men with intellectual disability, and the heroic efforts of those who helped them to find justice and reclaim their lives. In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disability and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than thirty years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse—until state social workers, local journalists, and one tenacious labor lawyer helped these men achieve freedom. Drawing on exhaustive interviews, Dan Barry dives deeply into the lives of the men, recording their memories of suffering, loneliness and fleeting joy, as well as the undying hope they maintained despite their traumatic circumstances. Barry explores how a small Iowa town remained oblivious to the plight of these men, analyzes the many causes for such profound and chronic negligence, and lays out the impact of the men’s dramatic court case, which has spurred advocates—including President Obama—to push for just pay and improved working conditions for people living with disabilities. A luminous work of social justice, told with compassion and compelling detail, The Boys in the Bunkhouse is more than just inspired storytelling. It is a clarion call for a vigilance that ensures inclusion and dignity for all.

AND BABY MAKES THREE? Veterinarian Coco Grant is used to animals being left on her doorstep. The last thing she expects to find there is an abandoned baby girl. As a temporary mommy, Coco can’t resist loving her sweet little charge. But there’s also Coco’s growing attraction to the town’s handsome, if infuriatingly by-the-book, sheriff. To help with the baby, Sheriff Jet Wilson is practically living with Coco—and the town gossips are in seventh heaven! It’s only when rumors start circulating about Lily’s real father that Jet realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than setting a few tongues wagging. Because not only is the lawman falling for the baby…he’s falling for Coco even harder.

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown comes a contemporary western romance filled to the brim with sexy cowboys, gutsy heroines, and genuine down-home Texas twang. 'Tis the season for... A pistol-totin' woman who's no angel A tough cowboy who doesn't believe in miracles Love that warms the coldest nights After a year in Kuwait, Lucas Allen can't wait to get back to his ranch for Christmas and meet his gorgeous internet pal in person. It's the holiday homecoming he's been dreaming about. But when he pulls in, there's Natalie Clark right in his front yard with a pink pistol in her hand and a dead coyote at her feet. Lucas is unfazed. But wait...is that a BABY in her arms? Fans of Linda Lael Miller and Diana Palmer will thrill to this charming story of a Texas cowboy military veteran, the woman of his dreams...and the secret baby that binds them together. Praise for Bestselling Contemporary Western Romances by Carolyn Brown: "Carolyn Brown created some handsome, hunkified, HOT cowboys! A fun, enjoyable, four-star-Christmas-to-remember novel."—The Romance Reviews "Full of sizzling chemistry and razor-sharp dialogue."—Night Owl Reviews Top Pick, 41⁄2 stars "Makes me believe in Christmas miracles and long slow kisses under the mistletoe."—The Romance Studio

Brought Together by a Baby Bounty hunter Thomas Beaufort has no problem handling outlaws, but when he's left with a criminal's baby to care for, he's in over his head. And the only person he can think of to ask for help is Esther Jensen, the woman whose heart he broke when he left town. But can he convince her to put aside the past until he tracks down the baby's outlaw father? Esther is ready to run Thomas off her Texas ranch—until she spies the abandoned newborn in his arms. Soon, working together to care for the precious babe stirs old hopes of a family. With trouble heading to their door, they could overcome it together—if she'll entrust her wary heart to this sweet, second-chance family…

"The fact of being a citizen of the United States of America offers the opportunity--not the guarantee, but the opportunity--to live an extraordinary life," Les Joslin writes in the introduction to Life & Duty, an autobiography in which he proves his thesis as the relives the first seventy years of his American adventure. He shares these years in twenty chapters that comprise this three-part volume. Part I covers his family heritage and early years from 1943 to 1967, Part II his U.S. Navy career from 1967 to 1988, and Part III his life in Oregon from 1988. from Part I, Chapter 5, Summer 1965 on the Toiyabe National Forest... That wasn't the first time I'd dealt with an armed citizen, and it wouldn't be the last. Some of the challenges of my fire prevention job had nothing to do with wildfire prevention but everything to do with the fact I was sometimes the only public servant around to handle a situation. It had to do with that sometimes gray area between official duty and moral obligation. the previous summer, on my way to Twin Lakes, I detoured to check the dump I'd burned a few days before. Suddenly, I heard shots, just as the Lone Ranger and Tonto did in the opening scene of almost every episode, and what I saw as I neared the dump scared me. A big, beefy, fortyish man standing next to a late-model Cadillac sedan was firing a high-powerd rifle.... He'd heard me coming, and turned as I stopped the patrol truck. He didn't look particularly threatening. But there were serious unknowns. I didn't know him. I didn't know what he might shoot at. I didn't know he wouldn't shoot at me. from Part II, Chapter 10, November 1979 aboard USS Kitty Hawk... on November 28, I got up, showered and shaved, put on clean khakis as usual, and started toward the wardroom for breakfast. the usual scent of salt and jet fuel was in the air, and I had a lot on my mind. I descended two ladders to the hangar bay, only to be brought up short by bumping my head on a helicopter that wasn't supposed to be there. A quick look around revealed seven more RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters that their HM-16 markings told me belonged to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Sixteen, not part of the ship's air wing. So that's why the swing south to Diego Garcia! They'd been flown there, probably in C-5As, and had flown aboard last night. Had I actually slept through flight quarters? I forgot about breakfast, climbed the ladders back to the 02 level, and knocked on the door of the flag N-2's office. "This isn't going to work," I said as he opened the door. "We can't fly those helicopters into a city of five million hostiles and rescue fifty hostages." "They don't want to hear that," he replied, and closed the door. from Part III, Chapter 15, Summer 1992 on the Deschutes National Forest As I walked toward the fire, I began to think. Am I doing the right thing? After all, I'm just a contract wilderness information specialist, not part of the fire organization. I hadn't been to the Deschutes National Forest's fire school. I didn't have fire clothing. I didn't have a fire shelter. Except for a canteen, I didn't have any water. and I'd turned in my last red card--the fire qualification card that rated me as a crew boss--in 1966 when I'd left the Toiyabe National Forest to go on active duty in the Navy. That was twenty-six years ago! Should I be doing this? Sure, I answered my own question. I'd started out in the "old Forest Service" where everybody did everything. I'd done this many times before, in the days before fire shirts and Nomex britches and fire shelters. I'd had five fire seasons on the Toiyabe, been on a couple big fires. ... I knew this business. I knew how to keep out of trouble. About the time I resolved that little issue, I was at the fire....