 by Helen Hardt.jpg)
Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Chance Bridger may have been raised on the family ranch with the father who left him and his two half brothers billions, but he hated the man. Unlike his brothers, he can't escape his past, especially when it comes back to haunt him in the form of Avery Marsh.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
CHANCE
* * *
Love.
I only loved one woman in my life, and that was nearly fifteen years ago.
Sure, I have my fun. I pick up a lady at The Dusty Rose now and again, maybe even take her out a time or two.
But that’s it. I’ve only felt that spark once, and I’ve never found it since.
So I stopped thinking about love. Bachelorhood isn’t so bad. I love the land, the animals, the work around the ranch. Hell, I even love my new brothers.
Damn it, though, the two of them brought romantic love into the house. Within weeks. They had no trouble finding it right here in Bayfield, my hometown. To be fair, they didn’t actually find love. Love seemed to find them. But love never found me, not in fifteen years.
Granted, I haven’t exactly been looking, and life has been a fucking tornado since my father’s death. I’m still a person of interest in the death of Joey Hopkins. I’m innocent, and I’m pretty sure the information Sadie uncovered will go a long way in proving it, but still…
It all gets to a guy after a while.
“I need to ride like the wind, boy,” I say to Raphael, my midnight-black quarter horse, as I groom his flank with the curry comb.
I’m on my own at the ranch today. Miles is taking care of Sadie, who needs some serious time off. After what she’s been through, fuck. I haven’t seen them and don’t plan to. They haven’t left his bedroom as far as I know. Austin has gone with Carly to her therapy session in Billings.
So I’m taking the morning off too. Just Raphael and me and the sunshine.
I need an escape.
Ivory, a gorgeous cremello mare, snorts in the next stall. She’s the horse Carly was grooming when Austin first laid eyes on her. He’s told me the story a hundred times if he’s told me once—how he was a goner the first time he saw her.
Miles says the same thing about Sadie. As soon as she sauntered up to him in that bar and asked him to take her panties, he was all in. Doesn’t sound much like a love story, but the look in Miles’s eyes when he tells it removes all doubt.
Maybe I should go over to that bar sometime.
“What do you think, buddy?” I brush a tangle out of Raphael’s mane. “You think there’s a woman out there for me?”
“I’d like to think there is.”
That voice—melodic with just a touch of sexy rasp.
I drop the curry comb, and it lands on the hay-covered dirt with a thud.
I turn.
Standing in the door to the stable is a mirage.
A mirage from fifteen years ago.
It can’t be. It just can’t.
“Avery? Avery Marsh?”
“Hello, Chance.”
God damn.
She was just in my thoughts.
One woman. I’ve loved only one woman in my life. People called it puppy love because we were seniors in high school, but I knew the truth. I knew what I felt was special.
My heart shattered when she left. She and her mother moved away a few months before our high school graduation, and I never heard from her again.
Not once.
But here she stands.
I know the stable stinks of hay and horse manure, but I swear to God, all I smell is the sweet citrus floral of Avery’s perfume. She always smelled so good.
“I can’t believe it’s you.” I blink to confirm it’s really her.
“I’m actually here on…” She looks down at her feet.
Her blond hair is pulled up into a loose bun, and she’s wearing black pants, a white silky blouse, and a dark red blazer.
But I see her in cut-off shorts and a violet tank top, her silky wheat-colored waves tumbling over her shoulders.
That’s what she was wearing the last time we saw each other.
Those were the clothes she put back on after we made love in that spring on the edge of the ranch. We took each other’s virginity that day, and the next day she left.
“Here on what?” I ask.
“On business, Chance.” She draws in a breath as she flips open a small black case to reveal a badge. “I’m a special agent with the FBI.”
What? I never imagined her going into law enforcement, or her being back.
My eyes widen. “What? The EPA—”
“The EPA is doing its own investigation. I’m here about the death of Joseph Hopkins.”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand. We’ve been working with the local sheriff’s office.”
“Not anymore.” She closes her badge holder. “As of now, the Feds are taking over this investigation. That means I’m here on Bridger Ranch until further notice.”
1
AVERY
* * *
My heart is racing, and my flesh is on fire.
Chance.
Chance Bridger.
I’m standing in front of Chance Bridger—the man who broke my heart fifteen years ago.
You think there’s a woman out there for me?
I’d like to think there is.
What was I thinking, answering him like that?