Foster House

The woman I spent one hot night with ends up being my boss’s daughter, and if I want to keep my job, I won’t touch her again. I work with my two brothers on Hawthorne Guest Ranch. We do the behind-the-scenes stuff with the real ranch and have strict orders to stay away from the guests, the staff, and especially the boss’s daughters. I do what I’m told, but when a woman comes into the bar and says she’s passing through, well… I give her a night to remember and try not to think about how I’d like to see her again. I do see her again.

Coming home to Huckleberry Springs, Montana, is hard enough. Begging my family for a job because I’m blacklisted up and down the West Coast? That’s tough. Patching up a broken heart after my cheating ex made me a spectacle? Stinks so bad. Drunkenly puking on Durban Hennessy, the hottest cowboy to ever work my daddy’s ranch? That’s just classic Campbell Hawthorne.

I returned to Huckleberry Springs to start over with my name on a bakery and my past sealed up tighter than a mason jar. I plan to run my business, keep my history to myself, and ignore handsome flirts like local distillery owner and rancher, Cruz Foster. Cruz might make me forget how to frost a cookie, but I’ve been taken in by guys like him before. When he turns up the charm, I punch his efforts down like a first proof of sourdough. He backs off but continues being sweet. My car dies, and he’s there. I need a ride, and he’s there.

I came to Huckleberry Springs to regroup—not to flash a cowboy while rescuing some strays from a ditch. Haven Hennessy is everything I don’t want anyway: A man who puts himself first. A man who’d rather have fun than face commitment. A man who can charm a girl right out of a good decision. So he can kiss my red lace panties goodbye the moment I figure out how to ditch this town. Yet he takes in the puppy and three kittens I rescue from the side of the road. He’s loyal to his brothers and his company.