Rugged Cowboy

Free spirit Viv Kendrick has felt like and outsider in her high-achieving family her whole life. Looking for a direction in her life, she jumps at the chance to make her own way by taking a temporary job as the spa manager at the Buchanan Ranch. Viv is quickly swept up in ranch life, including the antics of a mischievous goat named Gilbert Goatfried and a sexy cowboy.

Loner Wade Buchanan has been an outsider ever since he was orphaned and adopted by the Buchanan clan when he was a child. Now the ranch manager for their spread, he feels more like and employee than a family member. When Viv shows up as a breath of fresh air, she settles into the family as if she was born there. Caught between resentment and admiration, Wade tries his best to ignore his deepening feelings towards her. After all, she’ll be moving on soon—just like everyone else in his life.

But as summer ends and her time draws to a close, will Wade take a chance and ask Viv to stay, or will he let her go when her family calls?

It couldn’t be that bad to lose a goat on your first day on the job, could it?
Everyone knew those little bastards were sneaky and could wiggle out of anywhere. There were whole TikTok channels and Instagram hashtags devoted to the cute goats getting into trouble, along with the goats in pajamas, but let’s face it, that wasn’t this little jerk’s deal. He was straight-up gangsta and looking to stir up shit for Viv on her first day at the guest ranch.
When she had gone into the goat pen first thing that morning, she had sworn she saw a gleam of mischief in the tan-and-white goat’s eyes. They may have swirled a bit like a possessed child in one of those horror movies. But he’d seemed so docile and sweet, following her to the grassy area for her morning goat yoga session. She’d greeted her students, let them love up on the goats a bit, then started the session. When it was over, Gilbert Goatfried was gone.
Her first day on the job was a disaster, and she hadn’t even had breakfast or coffee.
And she used to think goats were cute.
Now she was trudging through a field with grass or hay or something that was above her knees as she strained to hear the baa or whatever sound goats make or a flash of something tan and white. Next time she was putting a bell on him, even if it disrupted the peace of yoga. Hell, next time she was leaving him in the barn.
It truly was a spectacular morning on the guest ranch in Montana. The sky was so blue, the air so fresh, though there was a hint of a scent on the breeze that she couldn’t quite place. She missed the smells from the vineyard back home. The ripening grapes on the vines. The familiar plants and flowers that she had grown up with in Upstate New York in the Finger Lakes region. In Montana, even the flowers were different, smelled different, but she loved it. She had wanted adventure, wanted space from her family to see what she could do on her own, away from their patronizing and barely tolerant gazes, as if she were a wayward child, still finding her path.
Granted, wading through a field without a path was the perfect metaphor for her life, if she was given to looking for messages from the beyond. She liked her tarot cards and crystals and meditated twice a day at least, but she was also practical and trudging through this tall grass had nothing to do with finding herself, only bringing home an unruly goat. Though her family might find her and the goat oddly similar in temperament.
A flash of white several yards ahead grabbed her attention. Yes! It was fur, definitely. Bears weren’t that small, right? And definitely not white. Nor were wolves—or were they? No, this had to be Gilbert.
“Gilbert? Come out now and I’ll bring you some tasty goat treats.”
She shook the bag of treats she’d grabbed on her way out of the goat barn after settling the other goats and determining Gilbert hadn’t led any others astray.
A head popped up above the grass, kind of like a prairie dog, though this wasn’t of the rodent family or a goat, either. It had black-and-white markings and medium-length fur. The muzzle was longer and pointed and was clearly a dog. Had she lost a dog too, or had someone else lost one?
Well, she may as well be a Good Samaritan and bring him home with her until she could find his owner.“Here, puppy. How did you get out here?”
She crouched and crooned to the dog, who started trotting toward her, tail wagging. The ground beneath her feet felt a bit weird, like it was rumbling. What the heck was that sensation? The dog came up to her and rubbed against her, then darted away, circling her, almost like he was herding her.
“Dog, come on. What are you doing? We have to find Gilbert, then we can go home and find your owner.”
The dog’s movements were becoming faster, almost frantic, as he darted at her, nipping at her legs. She jumped back and moved away from him.“What are you doing?’
The rumbling got louder, and she looked up to see a mass of brown headed straight for her.“What the actual f…”
Two men on horses crested the ridge just ahead of the herd of cows, their faces registering shock at seeing her standing there. Then they spurred their horses to get ahead of the herd and cut them off. One cowboy cut in front of the cows to counter the forward movement and the other raced to her and grabbed her around her waist, lifting her onto the side of his horse in one effortless movement, racing just out of reach of the thundering herd.
They just evaded the cows racing past them, his firm arm like a band around her waist, clasping her to his rigid body. As he wheeled his horse around, she was facing away from the herd and she saw a speck of tan and white placidly chewing at the tall grass. She hit the arm of the man holding her several times and pointed in the direction of the troublemaker.
The man stared down at her with a disbelieving stare.“You’ve got to be fucking joking.”