Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Lauren
When I heard my aunt was about to lose her home, I couldn’t just sit by. I had to do something. So, I started a fundraiser inviting people to cuddle a cowboy and well, it kind of went viral.
Now, women are bidding on these big, bearded cowboys who are grumpy and scowling. But the grumpiest one is Bronco. He’s my brother’s best friend, and he’s furious with me for using his farm this way.
I should probably tell him that I got the winning bid on him.
Bronco
This cowboy wants to cuddle. Problem is, the only one I want to cuddle is my best friend’s little sister. She’s sunshine and sweetness and temptation rolled into one vintage vixen.
When I told her to use the farm as a fundraiser, I had no idea she’d be putting me on the auction block.
Now, it’s time for this cowboy to put his boot down and show Lauren that she’s the one who belongs in his arms.
If you love a gruff cowboy who will do anything to make his curvy woman smile, then climb onto Bronco’s horse. It’s going to be a wild ride, but you’ll ache in the best way.
This is a steamy cowboy rom com with plenty of on-page spice between a gruff cowboy and his curvy woman set in the welcoming, small town of Courage County. If that sounds like your kind of story, click to read now
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
Lauren
I read a statistic that said if you have one person you can call in the middle of the night who will drop everything to come help you, then you should count yourself lucky. Well, I guess I’m doubly lucky because my person also happens to be a cranky cowboy with a heart of pure gold.
“Hey, sweetheart.” The moment, I hear my brother’s best friend’s voice some of the tension bleeds from my shoulders. He is the cranky cowboy. He’s cranky with everyone. Except me.
I stare at my bedroom wall where the water spot grows bigger by the second, a distinct rushing sound behind it. I whisper into the phone, “I need you.”
“I’m on the way.”
It’s two in the morning. He doesn’t sound all that awake, but his tone is gentle. It could make a girl think she were special to him if she were foolish enough to believe in such things. “I’m sorry to wake you.”
“Wasn’t sleeping anyway,” he answers as if I can’t read the lie in his rumbly voice. Still, it makes me feel better that he’s trying to make me feel better. Bronco has been like this as long as I’ve known him, though I’ve only known him for a few years.
He and my brother, Vale, became best friends when they were serving in the Marines together. They were supposed to come home and start a ranch for veterans, a place where guys returning from combat could transition back to civilian life.
Except that only one of them came home.
Now, Bronco looks after me because I’m his responsibility. The little sister he inherited from Vale. Problem is, I’ve never once looked at Bronco and thought of him as a big brother. I’ve always thought of him as a man—a big, gruff man with eyes that are stormy blue and a bushy beard I want to touch.
I listen to the sound of his quiet breathing and the rustle of clothes as he pulls them on. Does Bronco sleep naked? Is that a normal thing to wonder about your brother’s best friend? Somehow, I don’t think it is.
I wish things were different between us. I wish he’d want me back. I wish he’d take me in his arms and kiss me until I can’t think anymore. But if I can’t have that, then I wish I didn’t think of him at all. I wish I could be content, happy even, with his begrudging friendship.
Instead, I’m stuck with a helpless crush that I’ve never been able to shake. I guess, it’s my fault really. When Vale told me about Staff Sergeant Hayes, a gruff loner with no family of his own, something in my heart hurt.
I hated the idea that there was a man out there, willing to give everything to protect his men and no one was looking out for him.
After that, when I sent care packages to Vale, I included little treats for Bronco. He never said thank you or acknowledged a thing I did. But I knew it mattered. I knew it in the way that only someone who’s been abandoned too could know it.
“Tell me something,” he says, and I hear the truck door slam. He’s on the way. Help is on the way. Tears prick at my eyes when the thought comes, and I have to blink them back. Bronco doesn’t know how bad things are here. No one does.
I haven’t told him because it’s not his mess. This is my mess. I made it. I have to figure out how to clean it up. Except that I’ve never been so scared in my life, and I’m terrified that the people I care most about are going to pay for it.
“Like w-what?” I ask, stalling for time.
“A favorite memory,” he answers easily. “What’s one of your favorite memories?”
It only takes me a moment to think of one. “There used to be a magnolia tree on the property. It was the first thing I noticed the day my mom aban—dropped me and Vale off here.”
I’m not sure how much of our past Vale told Bronco. I don’t guess it matters. A lot of kids are abandoned by their drug addicted mom. Most kids just aren’t abandoned by their mom at a retirement community.
My Aunt Elaine is the director of the Wildflower Retirement Community. She didn’t blink or hesitate when my mom left the two of us on her doorstep. She hugged both me and Vale, gave us her trademark sunny smile, and promised that things were going to be all right.
Because of her, I grew up in this retirement home. I spent my days running the halls and doing craft time with the seniors. It was like having a big extended family filled with dozens and dozens of grandparents. Most of them doted on us, and very few complained about the noise we made. Instead, we were embraced as part of the community.