Always Mine by SloaneKennedy

I had one reason for never going back to the small town I once called home, but I never guessed it would be the same one that made me want to stay…

Brooks
I grew up in the small town of Eden, Wyoming, but never really felt like I fit in.

Until I met the one boy who changed all that.

When we were kids, Xavier Price understood horses, but somehow, he got me too. He’d made me feel like I wasn’t just the overdressed, too sensitive fifteen-year-old geek who loved math and didn’t always say the right thing. But all that changed the night he threw my trust back in my face and betrayed my family in the worst kind of way.

And while I’m back in Eden to make sure my uncle’s horse ranch is operating in the black, the one thing I know I won’t have to deal with is the man who’d been on the verge of stealing my heart ten years ago.

Because Xavier Price is still in prison for what he did and even if he weren’t, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to show his face in Eden ever again.

Right?

Xavier
Wrong.

That’s what returning to Eden after ten years behind bars feels like. But it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of choices. And it wasn’t like I was going to be handed any decent job offers, let alone my dream one of working with horses.

But that’s exactly what happened and now that I’m foreman of Black Hills Ranch, I’m not letting this job go for anything.

Not even the spoiled little rich kid I’d thought was different when he’d glommed onto me ten years ago.

I have no doubt Brooks Cunningham didn’t wait long to move on to bigger and better things the second my jail cell was locked behind me, and that’s just fine by me. I’d been wrong about the sweet, emotional boy who’d had a habit of wearing his heart on his sleeve anyway.

Except fate has decided to have another go at me by tossing Brooks right back into my sometimes too small world. Gone is the scrawny, stars-in-his-eyes nerd who used to do math problems just for fun. In his place is a gorgeous specimen of a man who thinks he can go toe to toe with me and once again destroy everything I’ve worked for.

Not happening.