Rust Canyon

Going home for the holidays is never easy. But it's next to impossible when you've just been dumped. Just when I think it can't get any worse, my grad school nemesis, billionaire playboy Macallan Blaze, finds me sulking, trying to figure out a Plan B. Life's a game to him, so when he offers to stand in as my fake boyfriend, I think he's joking. But he's dead serious. And it's not like I can afford to turn him down. My tiny hometown only consists of 600 residents, where everyone knows everyone, and gossip spreads faster than wildfire. Of freaking course, everyone falls in love with Mac the minute they meet him, and it's like he grew up in Rust Canyon. But when he lets the cocky facade slip and shows peeks of the man behind the mask, I start to think that maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. The scariest part of all is that I might actually like him.

At eighteen, I left my hometown in the rearview mirror, vowing to never return. Ten years later, my best friend is getting married, and I have to make a choice: set foot back in Rust Canyon, where painful memories of the past lurk around every corner, or let down the only person who's always been there for me. I convinced myself it would be fine, that I could put my blinders on and make it through a single week. Except one very important detail wasn't brought to my attention until it was too late. Tucker Grant, the reason for my self-imposed decade-long exile, is the best man to my maid of honor. I wish I could forget that he'd promised me forever, only to rip the rug out from beneath me when he married another woman. But that teenage heartbreak shattered my heart, and it hasn't been the same since. Though when the truth comes to light, it has me questioning everything and wondering, can one spark reignite an old flame?

For twenty-eight years, I've kept the woman I love close. Too close. Penny Atkins has been my best friend and secret crush for as long as I can remember. But I never dared to make a move, too afraid of wrecking our lifelong friendship. So, of course, when I finally convince myself to just suck it up and tell her that I've been in love with her since we were kids, I find out she's engaged. I waited too long, and now she's rushing into marriage with another man. I know I should throw in the towel, accept that she's happy and that nothing between us will change. Though, when I see her standing up there on her wedding day, it's not a choice but a compulsion to crash the altar. After all, it's not over until someone says, "I do."

Folks always warn that life passes by in the blink of an eye. It's filled with millions of moments, some more memorable than others, each one weaving together to create the tapestry of the legacy you leave behind when your time on this earth is done. As a bareback bronc rider, I have only one goal: to win enough buckles to compete at nationals or die trying. Then Daisy Morrison shows up in Rust Canyon and everything changes. My hometown's new schoolteacher captivates me from the minute I lay eyes on her, and suddenly my world is flipped upside down. Dreams get rearranged, priorities shift, and I begin to wonder if, instead of the glory I've been chasing on the rodeo circuit, Daisy is the prize I've been working toward all along.