Ashes of the Past

Name: Ashes of the Past
Author: Kris Abbott

119 pages

I’ve got a daughter, a flower shop, and a cattle ranch barely holding together—and that’s before the brooding cowboy shows up. Jack Renfrew may have been hired to help, but from day one, he’s been nothing but a thorn in my side.

Running Bloom & Vine by day and the Casting Ranch by night has pushed me to my limits. Add in my dad’s worsening memory and the weight of a secret mortgage my mother left behind, and most days I feel like I’m one breath away from breaking. The townsfolk think I’ve got it all handled—grace under pressure and all that—but they don’t see the quiet unraveling behind my carefully arranged bouquets.

Then Jack storms into my world—arrogant, stubborn, and annoyingly good with cattle. He’s been burned by love and doesn’t hide his disdain for small-town life—or me. I think he’s a control freak with trust issues. He thinks I’m an emotional landmine with something to prove. And unfortunately, we’re stuck working side by side if we have any hope of saving the ranch from a brutal drought and a wave of sick cattle.

As sparks turn to something dangerously close to desire, our shared nights checking fences and whispered talks after Olivia falls asleep start to blur the lines. But secrets—his, mine, and my father’s—lie just beneath the surface, waiting to ignite everything we’ve built. And when Jack uncovers the truth I’ve been hiding to protect my family’s legacy, everything explodes.

Now I’m facing the one thing I’ve always feared: losing the ranch, losing control… and maybe losing my heart to a man who swore he’d never stay. But sometimes love isn’t found in the grand gestures—it’s in the quiet strength of someone who chooses to stay when everything else falls apart.

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