The Cowboy Who Waited

Davis McKellen left the Slanted K ranch at nineteen, on foot, because his father told him to be gone by sunrise. He didn't say goodbye to Sam Ellery. He came back once, three months later, and stood at the end of the drive for an hour and left. Ten years on, Davis is back for good, running a vet practice out of Claude and taking whatever calls come in. The first one is Sam's mother's mare. The only man on the property is Sam. Sam doesn't fight him. He doesn't forgive him either, not for the ten years of silence, not for the ten years Sam stayed and worked half a ranch that was in Davis's name. What follows is a year of calving and branding and one cold February night in a barn, and slowly, the two of them learn to be in the same room without their hands shaking. By the time the rodeo comes through Claude, the whole town knows. Most of them don't care. The rest can go home. A clean cowboy reunion romance about a decade of Saturdays.