Page 1 of Silver Treasure
Prologue
Corrine
Some say the people in Silver Springs needed to get with the times. That they needed to have more than one barbershop, five-star restaurant, diner, school, gas station. and at least another general store. Others say that they loved the simplicity of it all.
They loved knowing everyone.
Knowing everyone also meant that if you worked your land from dawn to dusk, then you didn’t have time to run into town for a bite to eat. Which meant that neighbors delivered and dropped off extra dishes along with pies when they had the extra.
Not only was it such a close-knit community, but it was also a protective one. However, don’t allow yourself to become the thing of gossip.
It was also the place that if you weren’t in your pew before the Sunday service began, then you better expect a visit from the pastor that afternoon and the ladies of the red hat society that following Monday morning, even if you were at work.
If you can make it to work Monday morning, then you should have made it to church Sunday morning.
They love knowing that their children can run around the yard without their parents watching without hawk eyes because the entire community was close-knit, and you watched everyone and everything. This was the town where you went home when the town’s streetlights came on.
This was where the students ran to the ice cream parlor for ice cream and to the jukebox and spent their allowances topping the other student’s songs as soon as the final bell at their school rang. Their one school that housed pre-k all the way to senior year.
This was where horses roamed free on neighboring lands and every year to cull the herds for their safety the Bureau of LandManagement actually did their jobs, and they didn’t just kill the horses or take them to be sold for dog food kibble.
This was also the town where the neighbor’s helped one another out. They didn’t want any strip malls tearing apart God’s Country. They didn’t want anyone bringing some high fancy golf club or resort out here to disrupt a town that has been going on its own since the eighteen hundredths.
And consequently, this was the town where the hottest man alive lived.
Well according to twenty-two-year-old Corrine Matthews.
Who didn’t care that he was twice her age almost. The man was still drop-dead gorgeous, and it wasn’t from working out in a gym. No that was from back-breaking work out on the land and in the sun, which was the sexiest thing of all.
That man with the silver already streaked in his hair, and beard. A beard that was almost always trimmed neatly. Travis had no clue how handsome he really was. I knew that he had a scar on his cheek that I wanted nothing more than to kiss every, including every single one of his scars, to help erase some of the pain away that he had most likely endured.
Chapter 1
Travis
I stood there underneath my covered front porch as I gazed out over the vast amount of land that could be seen from the front of the house and that was only a small fourth of my property. Not only did I own a decent-sized spread, but I also owned property on both sides of county road eighty-one.
I had been able to obtain all of my land because I had literally been busting my ass since I was twelve. I didn’t want to work for anyone else. I wanted to provide a place where people wanted to come to work.
Ever since I was six; I have been saving my money, every single penny. I had read about a rancher that had gone a certain route, and I knew that was the man I wanted to be when I grew up. So, when I turned twelve my parents had asked me what I wanted for Christmas.
I told them that I wanted a little barn with enough room for a horse, that I wanted them to take me to an auction because I had saved up my money and I was buying a horse. It had also just happened that the horse I had been watching on the television at the races was one of the horses that would be at the auction.
Sure, I had only been twelve, but I had struck up a bargain with the neighboring rancher that I had read about, who just so happened to live right there smack dab in Silver Springs.
The man would help me train the horses so I could learn, he would trailer them and race them for twenty-five percent of my winnings.
We had kept up with the deal and the bargain until I had turned eighteen. By that time, I had already obtained a hefty amount in a little account that my mother was second on. The day I turned eighteen I also bought my property, and I handed my mother fifty grand to go along with her retirement fund. Since my father hadpassed away when I had turned nineteen it was a huge help to my mother.
Sadly, she had never gotten to enjoy her retirement. My mother had been a firm believer that you didn’t go to see a doctor unless it was absolutely necessary. So, when she had found a lump in one of her breasts, she assumed that it was a swollen milk gland.
The day after I turned twenty-one, I had rushed my mother to the emergency room because she was pale, and she could barely hold her own head up.
The moment the doctor had entered her room with a drawn face, I had known that it wasn’t going to be good news, and it hadn’t been. They had made my mother comfortable.
Three days in the hospital and with me by her side, she had slipped away peacefully in her sleep in the middle of the night. She had passed away from breast cancer.
It was also that night that I had vowed to honor her last wish.
