Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) by Mary Connealy

man, he’d have been out here accusing you of fraud within hours.”
    “So now I’ve got to spend five years earning this blasted hunk of rock-infested wasteland?” Kylie kicked at one of her rocks, not a big enough one to break her toe, thank heavens. She reached for the rock she’d kicked, lifted it, and hurled it into her lake. It hit with a plop, with ripples spreading out in a circle.
    “I told you to pick a different piece of land.” Kylie’s pa took a threatening step toward her. “You’re never gonna grow nothing out here. And I told you to leave your britches on and keep your hair short.”
    The man stopped before Aaron had to stop him. Kylie didn’t flinch or act particularly afraid. Aaron hoped that meant her pa was all bluster. But there was no denying the old codger was right about the land. This spot was beautiful, but it was no place a homesteader would normally pick. Of course the woman showed no sign of farming or running a herd or even hunting. Near as he could tell, her only livestock was a horse and she hadn’t planted so much as a garden. How did she live?
    “It’s too late.” Kylie’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Stop yammering at me, because all it does is make my ears hurt.”
    She stalked past both of them toward her cabin, climbed her porch, and went to sit on her rocking chair, shoulders slumped, the very image of defeat.
    With a deep sigh, she said, “I can’t do it, Pa. I can’t make it out here five years. I told you I’d give you three and that’s almost too long. But five, no.”
    “You’re not quitting on me.” Her father charged toward the porch, radiating fury. Aaron kept up. Ready to step between Kylie and her pa if need be. “Not after all the work we’ve done to build this cabin and take care of you.”
    We? Aaron could only guess that meant Kylie’s brothers and her pa were keeping her here, providing her with food, doing whatever it took to keep this homestead active. And if you added this water source to the land he’d seen claimed by the three Wilde men, it did make a nice stretch of land, very nice.
    “Pa, I’ll be twenty-five. A spinster. I’ll never find a husband if I wait until I’m that ancient. I’ll be almost too old to have children.”
    Since Aaron was twenty-nine, he thought that was a bit unkind. Harsh, even.
    “Your ma was twenty-five when you were born. A woman’s got a lot of years to have a family.”
    “Ma died when I was only ten. That’s proof she was too old.” Kylie looked at her lap. He’d seen her angry. He’d seen her scared. He’d seen her soaking wet and exhausted and crying her eyes out. But he’d never seen her like this, so spiritless. Her pa was draining all the fire out of her.
    “We need this piece of land to honor Jimmy. Are you going to betray him, along with your family? If you loved him, you’d want to build a big spread that would be a fitting memorial to him.”
    Jimmy, her brother killed in the war.
    Kylie looked up and studied her father for a moment. He’d come to stand in front of her, between her and the pretty view she loved.
    Aaron got the notion that her pa had stood between Kylie and the things she loved most of her life. Yet she didn’t seem scared of him, not like she would if he’d struck her. But emotionally he packed a wicked punch.
    Kylie’s eyes shifted from her pa to Aaron, who stood off to the side. “Aaron Masterson, may I introduce you to my father, Cudgel Wilde.”
    Aaron had a second to wonder if Cudgel was really the old man’s name, or was it a nickname he’d justly earned?
    “Pa,” Kylie went on, “Aaron is the land agent in AspenRidge. He saw through my disguise. He’s rewritten my homestead claim to reflect that I’m a woman.”
    He hadn’t yet, but Coulter had left Aaron no choice.
    Her pa looked at Aaron, then at Kylie. “Which means you lose your years of service, to be taken off the five years needed to earn out your claim. Which means, because you’re more