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“You need an assistant.” Cooper glances around my makeshift office in the barn. “You may run Wild Ranch, but you can’t do everything yourself, big brother.”

A thunderstorm is rolling in, and my little desk lamp casts a yellow glow as clouds block the sunlight that normally streams through the open doorway to the rest of the barn.

Roxie, the family wolfhound who’s loyal to us all but has recently claimed me as her favorite, lies sleeping in the dog bed next to my desk.

The darkness is a match to my foul mood, and I scowl at Cooper.

“What’s that?” I put my hand to my ear like I’m trying hard to listen. “I don’t think I heard you the first million times you said it.”

“Well, are you going to listen to me now?” he says good-naturedly as Chase laughs from where he’s lounging on the worn couch to the right of my desk.

My twin brothers are used to my bad moods. 

I have good reason to be pissed off, but my reason is outdated, and even I know it’s high time I move on with my life.

“I’ll think about hiring someone,” I say begrudgingly.

Coop raises a blond eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really.”

I have no choice. The ranch has exploded in growth lately. We’ve opened up a dude ranch. Plus, my cousin Declan and his wife Mia, under Mia’s company, have started a rescue and rehabilitation program for horses. 

Their work brought tons of publicity, and my administrative workload has doubled. I used to push paperwork to the back burner—truth is, I still do, but I can’t keep doing that. 

I’m buried, and I don’t know how to catch up.

On principle, I’m not good at passing off shit I think I should and could do myself. 

“You can’t do everything without help,” Cooper says like he’s reading my mind. “This is a family business, remember. We all pitch in. But none of us are any good at the office crap.”

Wild Ranch isn’t just our business—it’s our home.

My four siblings and I grew up here in “small town” Montana, and our parents raised us on this ranch.

When Mom and Dad decided to retire from ranch life and take some much-needed travel time, they put me, the oldest, in charge. Cooper and Chase do as much as I do to keep things running, though, and I couldn’t manage without them. 

“I know.” I wave Cooper off. “I’ve got it. I’ll get assistance. Now, will you two get the heck out of here, please?”

“Pouring buckets out.” Chase stands up and glances through my open office door and out through the barn. “Autumn showers. You picked a good evening to catch up on office crap.”

“That’s because I have a weather app.” 

He chuckles. “Coop and I are going to hole up at the house.”

At his words, Roxie picks her head up and lets out a little sound.

“She wants to go inside,” I tell them as she stands up.

“We’ll take her with us. See ya.”

Once they’re both gone, I close my office door and flick off my desk lamp.

As I settle back into the chair behind my desk, I tell myself I can still work by the dim light coming underneath the door.

But the truth is, I’m already sick and tired of riffling through the papers on my desk and pretending like I’m making progress.

I’ve got piles that I made weeks ago under some delusion that they were organized in a way I would understand later. 

I rub my eyes and take a long, slow breath, a habit I learned in therapy and one of the few tricks that I’ve kept with me. 

Besides the occasional horse whinny, the only sound is the rain pounding heavily on the metal roof of the barn, interrupted by rolling claps of thunder.

Bright light flashes through the cracks in the barn walls as the lightning moves ever closer.

I’m glad I sent all my ranch hands home early and that the horses are all tacked up in their stalls. No one should be out in weather this bad. 

Best to hunker down. 

But I’m no good at sitting still. 

I like to keep it moving.

Because when I don’t…

I can’t drown out the thoughts that circle in my brain. 

The memories I never want to relive.

I spin in my chair and stare at the wall behind me. 

The light is dim, thank Christ, but I can still make out the photo.

The photo I can’t look away from.

Me. Standing next to a bronc at a Texas rodeo in Hill Country, right before my event started.

My cousin, Logan Wild, rode with me in the ambulance after the bronc ran me up into the fence. 

Damn near killed me.

Sometimes, when the pain from the injuries got real bad late at night, I wished it had.

And I lost my career too. I retired.

I shake my head and spin back to face my desk.

That was a lifetime ago.

Now, my life is here. On the ranch.

Yes, my physical wounds have healed enough that I could, if I wanted to, return to the arena.

But the other wounds? The ones no one can see and only I feel?

Those will never heal.

That’s the price I pay for being a bronc rider at heart.

I danced with the devil, and the devil came out on top.

Only once, but once was all it took to change my life forever.

I even have my cowboy hat back, the one I almost died wearing.

I glance over at the hat where it sits on my bookshelf. Logan brought it home to me when he visited, said it was about time I had it back. I haven’t put it on since he asked me to. 

I stare at the hat, my hand twitching to pick it up.

But then…

Damn pain shoots down my leg again.

No physical reason why, and my therapist said that it would stop eventually.

When? I asked.

When you deal with your demons. Trauma can be stored in the body for decades until you let it go.

I rub my leg and stand up. It’s not raining enough to keep me from paying a visit to the local bar.

I don’t go for the alcohol. I’ll nurse a single beer for hours. It’s the company I crave. Chatting with the bartender, flirting with women, hanging out with the boys…it all helps to block out the incessant chatter in my own head and to let go of the stress of a day on the ranch. 

Bang, bang!

“What the hell…” I step over to my office door and pull it open. 

No one is there.

Still hearing the persistent sound of banging, I leave my office to go check out the stables. The lights are on, and I can see clearly that each horse is here and accounted for. None are anxious or making any sounds of distress.

I round the corner.

As I glance into an empty stall, I pull up short.

A woman in a soaked white gown, with her back to me, is holding a heeled white shoe and banging it over and over on the floorboards in front of her.

I may not be able to see her face, but I’d know that curved ass anywhere.

“Sophia.”

Continue reading Luke if you love:
 
✅ A protective cowboy
✅ A fiery runaway bride
✅  Enemies to lovers
 
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Read it in one night -- couldn't put it down!"
 
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The chemistry and banter between Luke and Sophia was incredible!"
 
Get the entire Ultimate Wild Cowboy E-Book Bundle with Luke and Brayden and the Wild Men Texas trilogy! This bundle is perfect for readers who love cowboys and family, protective heroes, smart sassy heroines, friends to lovers and fated love with plenty of swoon and emotion.