The cowboy refusing to mourn. The city girl in a strange predicament. The scoundrel that thinks fiancés come with a price tag.

Never ever date a client. That’s what I keep telling myself. Until Terence Daniels walks into my office. Fine. I caved. Biggest mistake of my life. Next thing I know, I’m fleeing Louisiana, hunkering down with my best friend in Dallas. I’m starving, terrified, so confused, and I’m thinking…things just cannot get any worse.

Until Kate’s car breaks down outside this bar that looks like their patrons kill women with sticks. We have no choice but to go inside. What I find in there is nothing that I would expect. What unfolds in the coming weeks are more mistakes. Better ones. And then one that I’ll forever call my favorite mistake.

***

After the day I’ve had, I’d sooner eat my boot than cook something. My brother Zack agrees, so we go to this hillbilly bar, where we keep a tab. One cranky woman and her sidekick show up, looking like lawyers among us cowboys, and we ask if we can help. The cranky one thinks we’re trying to steal her car, but the other one softens.

All is fine and dandy until she hits us with something that would shock a groundhog back into his burrow until hell freezes over. The look in her eyes is what gets me. Fear. I can’t stand that in a woman. Especially this one, with the tough exterior, making out like she’s fine when inside she’s a crumbling mess.

Never figured she’d turn things around like she does. Never figured I’d be the one to help her put it all back together. Never figured she’d see right through me yet show me the way in a way that nobody else has.

…and for the life of me, I never figured that she’d inadvertently bring so much danger to the ranch.

• HEA (Happily ever after)
• Ranch romance
• Cowboy romance
• Medium heat
• Coarse language
• Cliff-hanger ending