The Right Cowboy (Granite Junction) Small Town Western Romance by Megan Ryder ➱ Release Tour

Title: The Right Cowboy (Granite Junction Book 2)

Author: Megan Ryder

Genre: Small Town Western Contemporary

Release Date: October 21, 2021

Cover Designer: Bookin' it Designs

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

A sheriff seeking the truth, and the bad girl who will make him question everything...

Find her long lost dad? Check

Have a hot affair? Check

Land in the cross hairs of the town police? Wait. What?

Abby Byrd is on a journey to reconcile her past. Venturing to Granite Junction, she’s searching for the father she hasn’t seen in twenty years. It was meant to be a quick stop. Meet him and move on. Then, her car broke down. Temporarily stuck in the tiny little berg, the silver lining comes in the form of a sexy sheriff who allows her to check sizzling fling with a handsome cowboy off her bucket list.

Nathan Holt is married to his job as sheriff, and that’s the only long-term commitment he intends to embark on. Especially after experiencing first-hand the devastation his own family suffered through after his father’s death. Yet when a woman as fiery as she is beautiful comes to town, challenging him and firing his libido, he can’t help but be drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

Unfortunately, as feelings begin to develop between the two, Abby becomes the target of malicious gossip and accusations. Will Nathan see past the faulty evidence and ludicrous claims against her? Or will his sense of duty and fear of commitment blind him to the truth?

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Sitting on the top of the picnic table, her legs perched on the seat, was a woman, her red hair in a messy bun on her head, a tank top that gave him more than a tantalizing glimpse of tanned skin, and a pair of worn, painted-on jeans that left little to the imagination. The chick was smoking hot, and his dormant hormones stood up and noticed though, as the sheriff, ogling women was not in the handbook, except under things that triggered disciplinary procedures and dismissals. It would suck if he had to cite himself for violations. And he would do it. Those were the rules, after all.

Her eyes widened when she saw him and she slid from the table, walking toward him with a loose-limbed gait, her hips swaying a little as she moved. He steeled himself against his body’s reaction and cursed small-town life where the sheriff had no privacy to date, find a one-night stand, or even a friends-with-benefits situation to blow off steam. To soothe the itch that was burning under his skin, the pulsing need that he could mostly ignore until someone like this woman showed up and reminded him of what he was missing. Well, her . . . and when he saw his friends finding love and fawning all over each other. It was enough to make him sick, or so he told himself, when he wasn’t jealous of them. But he knew everyone in town and in the county, and in the surrounding area. No one had flipped his switch in a long time. He had convinced himself that he’d been destined to be alone, and that was for the best, especially for a sheriff.

“I expected a tow truck driver, not a cop. I’m feeling all kinds of special now.” She glanced toward the tree line and hesitated. “Do you have cows up here?”

Even her throaty voice arrowed straight to his cock, a complication he didn’t need right about now. Act professionally, Nathan. He’d never had to tell himself that before. Of course, most of the people he interacted with were either former classmates of his or friends of his mother’s, none of which he needed, or wanted, to see naked.

He gave her a curt nod, regaining his professionalism. He flashed his badge. “I’m Sheriff Holt. The tow truck is on its way. And I don’t think any of the ranchers have any cows up this way unless some of them got loose and I would have heard about that. Did you see something?”

She glanced at the tree line again, her brow furrowing. “I’m not sure what I saw. I thought it was a cow but not any kind of cow I’ve ever seen.”

His attention flared to life. “Describe it.”

She arched her eyebrow at his demand but only gave him a sharp look before responding. “It was shaggy, kind of like a buffalo but it didn’t look like pictures I saw in my history book. Small horns. Kind of a weird shape. I got a picture.”

She handed him her phone and Nathan sighed. Of course he’d just missed the rogue. He’d been chasing that damn beefalo around the county for a couple of months now. Buford even had his own section in the town paper for sightings. “That’s Buford. He’s a beefalo, a cross between a bison and cow. The result is a little bizarre and could look differently depending on how much of each side they got. Buford looks a lot like a bison with horns and shaggy fur but smaller features like a cow. He can be ornery so if you see him wandering around loose again, call the station.”

She gave him a brief salute. “Will do, Sheriff.”

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Thanks. Name?”

She smirked. “Wow, back to business. And here I thought we had a moment over your beefalo. Whatever. I’m Abby and I’m just passing through. Had a little car trouble so I called 9-1-1.”

He noted her omission of a last name. Interesting. “No Triple A?”

She laughed. “You saw the state of my car, right? Do you think I can afford Triple A? Do you even have that out here?”

He’d scanned the car to ensure there weren’t any weapons and it had appeared she was living out of her car so it was a fair statement. “I don’t make assumptions, ma’am. I only deal in facts.”

She stared at him for a long moment, then buried her fingers in her hair and shook out the bun, letting her hair fall around her shoulders. “How do you walk with that stick up your ass?”

Heat flooded his face and he frowned at the teasing tone. “Ma’am…”

She shook her head. “I’m not that old, officer. Please don’t ma’am me. Call me Abby.”

“Care to share your last name?”

For the first time, she looked uncomfortable and glanced away. “I’d prefer not to say.”

“And I prefer to be enjoying my breakfast but we can’t all have what we want.” The words just came out before he could stop them.

She looked over, a smile crossing her face. “Well, you can make a joke. Gaines. Abby Gaines. And I’m headed to Granite Junction. For now. Like I said, I’m just passing through.”

“We’re not a big hub of commerce so if your car needs a part, it could take a while. Do you know what went wrong?”

She frowned and glanced down the path towards the parking lot. “It just stopped running, then smoke billowed out from the hood. I figured that was bad. I was lucky no one was around me and I could coast to this pull-off here.”

“We don’t get a lot of traffic this way. You’re lucky you had cell service.” His walkie talkie squawked and he listened for a moment. “Sounds like your tow is here. Shall we go check it out, Miss Gaines?”

She jerked at the name then nodded. Interesting reaction. Almost as if she didn’t recognize it. Interesting. She headed down the path, pausing next to him.

“Thank you, Sheriff.” A sly grin crossed her face. “I’ll do my best to abide by your laws while I’m in your town.”

Ever since Megan Ryder discovered Jude Deveraux and Judith McNaught while sneaking around the “forbidden” romance section of the library one day after school, she has been voraciously devouring romance novels of all types. Now a romance author in her own right, Megan pens sexy contemporary novels all about family and hot lovin’ with the boy next door. She lives in Connecticut, spending her days as a technical writer and her spare time divided between her addiction to knitting and reading.