Heartbreak Ranch

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, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author makes no claims to, but instead acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction including brands or products such as: Ford Expedition, Hank Williams, Jr.,
The Birth of Venus
by Botticelli,
The Princess and the Pea
, Starbucks, iPhone, Sam Elliot,
City Slickers
, Jack Palance, Budweiser, Stetson, “Looking for Love” by Johnny Lee, M&M’s, “Drunk on You” by Luke Bryan, iPod, “Why Don’t We Just Dance” by Josh Turner, Wrangler, Texas A&M, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Marlboro, Oscar Meyer, John Wayne, Giada de Laurentiis, Technicolor, Emily Post, Lagavulin 16, “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This” by Toby Keith, and Elvin Bishop.

Copyright © 2013 by Anastasia Ryan.

HEARTBREAK RANCH by Anastasia Ryan

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Swoon Romance. Swoon Romance and its related logo are registered trademarks of Georgia McBride Books, LLC.

Summary: A girl on vacation with her family finds a way to enjoy it after meeting a handsome rancher.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Edited by Georgia McBride

Published by Swoon Romance

Cover design by Su Kopil

Cover art license by Shutterstock.com

To my parents, Harold and Mary Kay:

For feeding, clothing, and sheltering me with your love of words.

You are the reason I write. You are the reason the words are in my soul.

I love you.

The dark blue Ford Expedition stopped suddenly and jolted Graysen Beaufort out of her light slumber. She stretched like a cat rudely interrupted from its afternoon nap and grumbled under her breath about the newly found stiffness in her right elbow. The mind-numbing landscape of the Great Plains had lulled her into a sleep. She peered out the window and realized they were still in Nebraska. She simmered with annoyance. This had to be the dullest stretch of road ever paved. Nebraska had a wealth of seemingly endless stretches of highway that were devoid of any points of interest or even variation in scenery.

This isn’t fair.
Graysen would have rather been anywhere in the world right now, but her family crowded into her father’s SUV because her mother insisted they take a vacation as a family one last time before they all went off and started lives of their own. While Graysen inwardly pouted, she held her tongue about her displeasure, not wanting to diminish her mother’s joy. There were thousands of better ways to spend her summer before she started graduate school. She could be in Italy with her best friend, Emma, basking in the warmth of Florence. She should be curled up on a large futon sipping a glass of Chianti and admiring the view from the hotel terrace. She should be enjoying the sights of the Duomo, the Palazzo, and the surrounding hills of Florence. Instead, she found herself in the back of her father’s Expedition listening to his attempt to sing along with Hank Jr. Her older brother Carson and younger sister Harper chatted aimlessly with her mother as the miles dragged by.

Of all the places they could take a vacation, Graysen’s parents picked out a guest ranch in Wyoming where, they had noted excitedly, they’d learn to ride horses and two-step, how thrilling. It was unfortunate enough they stopped in Ogallala last night. Her father’s cowboy predilection had resulted in them eating Buffalo burgers in some dusty, old saloon and staying overnight in that one-horse town. The hard ground of the Nebraska plains would have been more comfortable than the lumpy, thin mattress the motel tried to pass off as a bed. Only one night into the forced family vacation, and Graysen felt as though she was trapped in some sort of fractured fairy tale.
Now I know exactly how the princess felt after sleeping on that infamous pea all night.

The backseat of her father’s SUV was almost as uncomfortable as that bed. Graysen shifted in the seat and longed to get out and stretch her legs for a bit. They had driven hundreds of miles between yesterday and this morning, and they still had hundreds of miles left. They wouldn’t reach the ranch until late in the evening. Graysen was certain she would die of boredom long before they arrived. Her parents insisted on driving because flying would have ruined the whole experience. Apparently driving across torturously flat, straight roads and watching ungodly amounts of nothing but flat land go by was necessary in order to appreciate life more fully.

Graysen gazed longingly out the window. Twirling a lock of chestnut hair around her recently manicured index finger, she daydreamed about admiring
The Birth of Venus
in the Botticelli Room at the Uffizi. She wilted into her seat. She knew she wouldn’t survive two long weeks in a cabin surrounded by grazing cattle and dirt. Her father’s idea of the perfect family vacation was on a fully functioning cattle ranch. He mentioned they would have the chance to experience life at a slower pace, which meant of course no Starbucks, no cable, no Wi-Fi.

She clung to the hope she would still be able to get a signal with her iPhone out in the boondocks. At least then she could text her complaints to her best friend, Emma. The rest of her family seemed to be in the cowboy spirit. Her father bought them cowboy hats. Harper and her mom were both wearing new western-style boots. Even Carson seemed excited about going and Carson was never excited about going anywhere. Her big brother had saved his vacation time to go on this family outing, which, admittedly, was the one good thing about this trip. They barely got the chance to see each other since he graduated college and started working full-time in the Twin Cities.

It wasn’t long before Harper tried to draw her into conversation. “Graysen, do you think there will be any guys there?” At seventeen, her younger sister had a one-track mind.

“No, it’s going to be an all-female ranch,” Graysen hissed.

“C’mon you know what I mean,” Harper countered with a dramatic sigh.

Carson offered his two cents. “It doesn’t matter how many guys are there. If any one of them so much as winks at my baby sister, they’ll have to answer to me.”

“Does that go for both sisters?” Graysen shot back in a smart-assed tone.

“Darn tootin’,” Carson belted out in his best cowboy impression. He was her older brother by five years, and even though they were now twenty-one and twenty-six, he still liked to think that his little sister needed his protection.

They drove for what seemed like an eternity and stopped to refuel, eat, and for the occasional pit stop for Harper, who’d polished off about a gallon of water that day. As the day grew long, their packed SUV turned off the highway and travelled down a dirt road for the better part of a half hour. The sun was setting, casting a soft orange glow on the pastures as they pulled off the dusty road and onto a long drive, under an archway of massive rough-hewn logs that had an uncomplicated sign that read “White Pine” hanging from it. Driving into the White Pine Ranch, the first thing Graysen noticed was how vast the ranch seemed.

What appeared as a dot against the mountain-studded horizon began to grow and she realized she was seeing several buildings. To the right the land fell away and there was a large, winding creek that fed a pond. Clusters of guest cabins dotted the landscape. The main lodge was planted in the middle of stables and corrals. Its once-copper roof had turned a beautiful shade of green. There was a porch that swept across three sides of the stone house, and many people lingered outside, enjoying the sunset. Several horses were galloping in a large fenced area close to the barn.

After checking in and grabbing their luggage, the Beauforts were led to the guest cabin where they would be spending the next two weeks. Graysen was pleasantly surprised by its warmth. The great room, rustic yet inviting, was offset by a charming country kitchen. It was furnished with distressed leather sofas and chairs, and had a small, stone fireplace with a large woven rug covering part of the walnut flooring. The cabin had two bedrooms. Graysen and Harper were sharing a room. Carson was taking the extra bed in her parents’ room.