Coming Home to the Cowboy
Redemption Ranch, #2
Redemption Ranch, #2
by Megan Ryder
Release Date: September 23rd 2019
Cover Designer: Tule Publishing and Lee Hyatt
Genre: Western Contemporary Romance
The town bad boy with hidden pain…
Champion bull-rider and all-around fun guy Chase Summers is everybody’s friend, but his affable personality hides a lifetime of pain. Having been abandoned as a young child at the steps of a church, he learned young that he was unwanted. The only thing that saved him from isolation was his foster dad and life on Redemption Ranch. Now he spends his time on the rodeo circuit, sending home his winnings to help the ranch succeed, and his nights with buckle bunnies, making sure no one gets close enough to touch the pain deep inside.
The town good girl who saw the good in everyone…
When accountant and small business advisor Hailey Spencer is hired by Redemption Ranch to implement their guest ranch ideas, she and Chase are thrown together. It's not long before he is introduced to the son that she had with his best friend. The best friend who would've following Chase anywhere...even the bull riding circuit with it's deadly potential. With Hailey hanging on to resentment and Chase racked with guilt, the two try to fight their age-old attraction – in vain. Chase knows Hailey deserves more than a broken-down cowboy for her son and her heart.
Can Chase resist the call of the rodeo and man up for a woman he's loved for years or will he leave for the allure of the road.
"Hello, Hailey. I didn't expect to see you here."
Hailey's breath caught in her throat and she swallowed hard.
Chase Summers.
Her heart pounded in her chest and the world felt like it tilted under her feet. She had expected to run into him at some point. She had only hoped to have some time to settle in, had time to prepare herself before being confronted with the reality of him.
She drank in the sight of him eagerly, despite the pit in her stomach. It'd been three, no four years since she'd last seen him, since Adam's funeral. Chase had been a rock for her, solid as the granite the town had been named for. He stood by her side, making sure she had everything she needed while she slept-walked through those horrifying days when she tried to figure out what went wrong and how to move on with her life and raise a two-year-old on her own. He had offered to stay on in Billings and help, but what was there for him to do? So, she'd sent him on his way and tried to get on with finding her new normal.
He'd called a couple of times after Chase died, but she had always responded with a text saying she was busy or something. He’d seemed as relieved as she, and she had no trouble staying away from Grand Junction in the Professional Bull Riding's off-season, effectively avoiding him, even as a part of heart wanted to be near him. But she had to make her own way, and Chase was too much a loner for her to rely on.
Tara's head was bopping back and forth between the two of them like a tennis match, with Chase was standing at the top of the porch steps, patiently waiting while Hailey took processed him. She took another step to see him more clearly in the shadows of the porch and gasped.
"Oh my God, Chase. What happened to you?"
He was leaning on a cane and his face had a few yellowed bruises to match bruises on his arms. The T-shirt should have revealed the six-pack stomach she knew he had, but instead it showed a smooth area where bandages were wrapped tightly around ribs. Her gaze fixed on the subtle tightening of his jaw and the muscles around his eyes revealing the tension and pain he must be feeling. Damn that moved that had kept her from keeping up with the circuit, damn this fucking sport that injured him, and most of all damn his adrenaline need to risk his life for the sport that killed her husband.
He quirked a grin at her. "Not a pretty sight, is it? Oleander took offense at me riding him for eight seconds and got his revenge. I'll be all right in a few weeks."
"But for now, he's staying here in the apartment I promised you. I'm so sorry, Hailey," Tara finished in a rush. "I completely forgot yesterday. I was so excited that you were interested. But the whole house is empty and the rest of the place is planned for a B&B, so the other rooms are all finished but not rented until next season. You and AJ can have the run of the place until then."
Tara's words slowly sank in, and Hailey pivoted and stared at her. "You mean, have me and AJ live here with Chase? For how long?"
Chase, too, stared at Tara. "Wait a minute. You never said anything about having a roommate."
"It's perfect. Chase, someone needs to make sure you're okay, especially after your lung injury, and Hailey needs a place to stay."
Chase's jaw clenched, but he only aimed a questioning look at her, and she flushed. "I have a place to stay. I just prefer to find somewhere else."
Tara waved her hand and arched a brow. "Come on. Do you really want to stay with your parents when you can live here?"
Chase started down the steps and both women stopped him immediately. He glared at them both. "I can walk down the damned stairs. It's just a sprain. I was at the barn earlier today. Tara, can you give Hailey and I a few minutes? I think we need to talk before we agree to being roommates."
Tara's gaze shot between them, full of questions, but she nodded. "I'll go hang with Ty at the barn and be back soon. Don't run her off. She's the second-best thing to happen to Redemption Ranch, and we need her."
Chase grinned. "And you're the first?"
Tara shot him a saucy grin over her shoulder. "And don't you forget it."
Ever since Megan Ryder discovered Jude Deveraux and Judith McNaught while sneaking around the “forbidden” romance section of the library one day after school, she has been voraciously devouring romance novels of all types. Now a romance author in her own right, Megan pens sexy contemporary novels all about family and hot lovin’ with the boy next door. She lives in Connecticut, spending her days as a technical writer and her spare time divided between her addiction to knitting and reading.
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