Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Callum Parrish left after high school and never looked back. Until he had to. Spreadsheets and slide decks didn't prepare him for a life on a ranch. Being partnered with a woman who knows every inch of it and wants nothing to do with him isn't helping their situation.
Can he win over Quinn as he navigates their new normal, or will she remain the one thing on the ranch he can't manage?
@2026 by GTB Publishing LLC and Adaline Raine
All rights reserved
No parts of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission by the publisher.
Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by Dirty Daddies Publishing, an imprint of GTB Publishing.
Chapter One
Quinn
“Versace!” I snorted, angrily digging muck out of Glimmer’s hooves without being rough. Not to her. Never to her. My sweet Appaloosa mare, mine since I was ten. I loved her silver-gray coat and white-spotted hindquarters. They were as familiar to me as my own reflection. Glimmer nuzzled her snout into me like she understood the turmoil flooding my system.
“Graham Nolan, the only available lawyer, because let’s face it, we don’t have many options. Well, he was supportive and kind during the will reading, as anyone would be. Obviously he didn’t know what was happening in my brain,” I prattled. “Who did Callum think he was trying to impress? Wearing some navy Versace suit that was tailored to outline every feature on his stupid muscular body,” I seethed, realizing how irrational that was.
“He has abs. Probably a six-pack. Callum smelled expensive and I may have googled it when I got home. Dark vanilla. Spiced tobacco. May have been Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille, something that had no right smelling so good on a man who ruined my entire week. Not that I was thinking about him. Don’t look at me like that, Glimmer.” I tsked when my sweet horse seemed to side-eye me. “Under all that posh exterior, he’s nothing but a small-town boy wearing fancy shoes,” I fumed, only minimally less upset.
Glimmer huffed, seemingly as annoyed as I was. Setting her hoof down gently, I started on the next one.
“Get this. You’ll love this. Nana left Violet Meadows to both of us. Why did she do that? We have to cooperate. Can you stand it?”
Glimmer didn’t give me her opinion on why Nana did or didn’t do things. But venting to her was cathartic if nothing else.
“Now it’s me and the city slicker who probably doesn’t remember how to ride a horse, let alone take care of one. All those big fancy-schmancy meetings rotted his brain.”
“Are you quite done with your assessment, short-stack?”
Whipping my head around so fast I hit my cheek with my ponytail, I saw the man I’d been roasting and wondered how much of it he’d heard. Short-stack. That annoying nickname sparked from his growth spurt in high school when he suddenly towered over me. I was five-foot-five in heels, so most people did. But he kept growing all the way to six-foot-three and change. I hated that I had to almost arch my neck to meet his stare.
“How long have you been darkening my stall?” I slowly cleaned Glimmer’s hoof, pretending I was fascinated with it. Trying to appear uninterested in whatever he had to say, I failed to keep my eyes off him.
Callum Parrish entered with the same polished grace as the first time I’d seen him in the lawyer’s office. Handsomely dressed in fitted black slacks, a red polo, and an expensive-looking watch, not that I cared what he wore. He was going to be here more often and I didn’t love that thought.
“Long enough to hear that you’re not very happy with the stipulation that’s been set for us. Nana was very clear that we were to manage this place together. I’d been hoping the irritation on your face the other day was your natural disposition rather than a simmering dislike of me personally.”
I didn’t have a resting bitch face, and I didn’t get snarky with others in general. No, I was a freaking ray of sunshine toward everyone. Everyone that mattered. And even though we were now co-owners of Violet Meadows Ranch, forced proximity was only hot in my romance novels.