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Chapter 1

Tempest

“I’ll ride a cowboy. Sign me up.”

My sister Stormy taps the paper. “The flyer says it’s Write a Cowboy. Like pen pals.”

“Oh. Too bad.” I make a sad face.

She laughs and continues reading. “The sign-up fees will support Coyote Bend’s elderly assistance program.”

“In what way?” I stop dragging a heavy, damaged table toward the front door of the once shuttered pool hall and arcade our aunt bought and wants to reopen.

“Home repairs, food…whatever they need.” She taps the flyer again. “You should join this. You know what they say about cowboys.”

“A ride a day keeps my vibrator at bay?”

Stormy laughs then sets the flyer aside to help me with the table. “What they say is that cowboys are romantic.”

I sigh. I’ve heard this before. All my sisters married cowboys and are living their happily ever after.

I’m happy for them and don’t have anything against cowboys. Except one. Maverick Calhoun.

He’s an expert in driving me nuts. Like he got a degree in it.

I hate that whenever fall rolls around, I always think about the town’s bonfire celebrations when I visited Coyote Bend in the past and how he was always the center of attention from adoring women.

I’ve known him since we were kids and he used to be all little spaghetti noodle arms and bony legs and big sarcastic mouth. Now he’s tall, handsome and the sad little peach fuzz he once tried to grow has blossomed into a thick beard and mustache.

“Are you lifting your end or are you on a break?” Stormy asks, wiping the sweat from her forehead with a grunt.

“Sorry. I zoned out.”

We finish wrestling the table out and set it in front of the big window with the missing letter so it looks like the business is called OOL & GAMES. I make a mental note to get that fixed along with dozens of other tasks on what my aunt labeled the No-Easy-Days list. But I don’t mind.

Anything to stay busy to keep from feeling the weight of the family drama going on back home in Lucky River where my parents live hating each other.

It didn’t used to be that way. They were once the most envied couple in the town. My father was the local weatherman popular for his jokes and good nature. Even the surrounding towns would tune in to watch him.

He loved everything about the weather and even gave me and my three sisters weather-related names. Tempest Wind. Sunny Sky. Rainee Day. Stormy Night.

My life was almost perfect.

Then everything fell apart. My father had an affair. Returned home. Mom pseudo-forgave him. He went back to the other woman.

Now that floozy as my mom calls the woman my dad cheated on her with is expecting a baby. Or so that’s the latest rumor in the family soap opera. Who knows? Floozy isn’t exactly the fountain of truth. And she loves keeping stuff stirred up.

That’s why when Aunt Kyra asked for help getting this business up and running, I jumped at the chance to get out of town for a while. Even if it means dealing with Maverick.

“Hey. You zoned again,” Stormy says snapping her fingers to get my attention as we walk back inside the building. “Like I was saying…I seriously think you should sign up for the pen pal thing. Maybe there’s a Mr. Right in it for you.”

“Recent break up remember? Though he seems to think I’ll change my mind if he keeps texting and calling me.” Long story short, I thought I found the one. He ended up behaving exactly like my father. But I’m nothing like my mother. One strike and he’s out for good.

She narrows her eyes. “That cheating bastard.”

“Talking about her ex again?” Emberlynn interrupts as she walks in carrying a grocery bag.

Emberlynn is, or rather was, my sister, Sunny’s veterinarian assistant back in Lucky River. She moved home to Coyote Bend to take care of her grandmother who can no longer live on her own.