Enjoy an excerpt from my upcoming novella The Ranch Foreman. It will be available next Wednesday, August 14th from Dreamspinner Press.

Blurb:

When Madison “Matty” Ward finds himself out of work and without a place to live, his cousin comes through with a job on the Gates cattle ranch. Despite not knowing anything about herding cattle or taking care of horses, Matty does his best to impress the older hunky foreman, Baxter Hollingsworth. Baxter is drawn to the new young hand, but he’s deeply closeted, and after an openly gay veterinarian shows he’s interested in Matty, Baxter’s repressed feelings lead to an explosive encounter. Baxter then withdraws—leaving Matty feeling angry and used—until an accident forces him to confront his fears.

Excerpt:

“I swear,” Brian said quietly while shaking his head. “I have never seen Baxter so riled up.”

“Can we talk about something else, please?” Matty asked impatiently as he spread fresh sawdust and straw on the floor of Chestnut’s stall. All anyone could talk about for the past week was the fight—if you could call a one-sided ass-kicking a fight—and Clyde getting fired.

The hands seemed to have come to the conclusion that Clyde had hit on Baxter’s girl. Matty scoffed and rolled his eyes at the very thought. Little did they know. Only he, Brian, and Baxter knew the real reason. Though Matty wondered if Fred Gates suspected something.

“What?” asked Brian.

“What what?”

“What was up with that noise and the eye rolls?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing my ass.” Brian’s posture stiffened suddenly. “Shit,” he mumbled under his breath. “Baxter’s coming, and he looks pissed. Gotta go.”

“When doesn’t he look pissed?” Matty asked, but Brian had already scrambled out of the barn’s back door.

Matty couldn’t blame him for taking off like that. Baxter had been in a cranky mood all week. He was even more quiet than usual. When he wasn’t snapping at people and biting their heads off, that is.

Baxter entered the barn carrying a large, bruised apple in his fist. He froze in step and looked at Matty with surprise, quickly pushing the fruit into his jacket pocket. “What are you doing here?”

“Stable boy.” Matty pointed at himself with a thumb, then tapped the pitchfork on the concrete floor. “Pitchfork. Do the math.”

“Don’t get smart with me.”

“Then don’t ask stupid questions.”

“You got some mouth on you, boy.”

Matty raised an eyebrow. “I bet you say that to all the boys.”

Realizing the double meaning of his words, Baxter’s eyes darted away, and he quickly changed the subject. “You were supposed to be helping Miss Ethel today.”

“She asked me to help with tomorrow’s supper, not today.”

“Fine. I’m going in to the city.” He turned and walked away, but stopped at the doorway. Without looking back, he asked, “You wanna ride along?”

Matty so badly wanted to say yes. He knew what Baxter was really asking for. Maybe they could even do it in the truck and not inside the restroom. And Matty wanted to agree so bad it hurt. But Baxter would only have him when he was drunk or when there was a wall separating him from Matty. And that shit hurt.

He took a deep breath and tried to hold onto the last shreds of his pride. “I should stay here and finish this.”

Baxter left without a word.

To keep from running after the brawny cowboy, Matty gripped the pitchfork tight and returned to cleaning the stalls.