She’s spent her whole life being left behind. He’s spent his whole life leaving.
Natalie Pringle doesn’t do helpless. She’s been raising her five-year-old niece on her own since the fire that took her brother, teaching first grade and holding everything together by sheer stubborn will. The last thing she needs is Cash Crawford—rodeo stock manager, professional drifter, and the most infuriating man she’s ever met—camped out in her living room playing nursemaid.
But her broken ankle and a five-year-old who adores “Uncuh Cash” don’t leave her much choice.
Cash Crawford doesn’t do roots. He’s spent a decade on the road, outrunning the heartbreak that sent him there, and he’s got a world rodeo championship to win to in three weeks. Looking after one stubborn, contrary schoolteacher and her horse-crazy niece is a temporary detour. That’s all.
Except somewhere between soothing Natalie’s nightmares and making Katie’s breakfast, between bedtime stories and bickering that feels a lot like flirting, temporary starts feeling permanent. And Natalie—who knows exactly what it costs to love someone who won’t stay—finds herself leaning on a man who carries a handkerchief for her tears, makes her adopted daughter laugh, and looks at her and Katie like they’re the home he never knew he was missing.
But the rodeo is calling. Cash has never been a staying king of cowboy, and Natalie knows better than anyone what comes after good-bye.
