Plain Daisy Ranch

He's my first love. My high school sweetheart. And he's leaving tomorrow for a bigger and better life. I've loved Ben almost my entire life, and we have one night left before he heads miles away to college on a football scholarship. I'm bound and determined to make sure this day goes perfectly so he remembers me as the girl he loves. But I cant help worrying that Ill end up as the girl he loved.

It's the classic storyboy goes off into the world to fulfill his dreams and leaves the girl behind. Not every boy returns home, and I wish Ben Noughton wouldn't have come back to our small ranching town at all after he retired from playing professional football. I figure it's a quick layover for him. He always wanted out of this town and off his family's ranch. I just have to bide my time until he turns his back on all of us again.

It’s the classic story— best friends since childhood agree to a fake marriage, thinking they can pretend to love each other without their relationship changing. Jude would do anything for me. He’s stood by my side since we were six, and I’ve done the same for him. When my father dies, leaving our family farm drowning in debt and on the brink of being auctioned, I’m not surprised Jude steps in to help. I just never dreamed he’d fall to bended knee and devise a plan for us to fool everyone into thinking there’s more than a lifelong friendship between us.

It’s the classic story—girl returns to her hometown only to end up moving in with her high school crush, who she hates. Returning to Willowbrook was my only option after Chicago chewed me up and spit me out. Technically, it wasn’t Chicago’s fault. It was his fault—the man I thought I knew who turned out to be a liar. My older sister, always the one to swoop in and fix things, secured me a job as a yoga instructor on her fiancé’s family ranch. As my self-assigned protector, she’s keeping one eye on me and one eye on Emmett Noughton, her fiancé’s brother.

It was a fun Vegas getaway—until I woke up married to my ex-fiancé’s brother. After Watson brother #1 ditched me at the altar, I stopped believing in happily-ever-afters. So I have no clue how I ended up saying “I do” to Brooks—Watson brother #2—somewhere between tequila shots and bad decisions. Okay, that may not be true. Sheriff Watson has been a charming thorn in my side ever since his brother left our small ranch town in his rearview mirror. He’s a little too steady, a little too sweet, and way too intuitive because he sees through my facade.

Seven years ago, he walked away, and I built a new life for myself, swearing never to look back. But when my husband is arrested, that life collapses, leaving my daughter and me with nothing but a three-month plan to return to the small ranch town before disappearing again.

It was straight out of a rom-com—until two pink lines changed everything. Zander Shaw is country music’s hottest star. So, when he singled me out of a packed arena and had me pulled backstage, I should’ve known I wasn’t his forever. One signed NDA later, I was sneaking onto his tour bus, wrapped up in his world, and him. But it ended before it really started when he ghosted me. Then he shows up on my family’s ranch to film his new music video, a surprise to us both. Now I’m his appointed tour guide around the ranch, stuck sharing all my favorite places with the man who carelessly discarded me.