RELEASE BLITZ: Crossroads by Devney Perry
CROSSROADS, an all-new enemies-to-lovers, second-chance-at-first-love, small-town cowboy romance from USA Today Bestselling Author, Devney Perry, is available now!
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This situation is only temporary. We’re at a crossroads…
I met West Haven when I was eight years old. He taught me to play poker when I was nine, and we made paper airplanes together when I was eleven. He kissed me when I was sixteen. He was the best part about my family’s summer vacations to Montana. He was the boy who stole my heart. I was twenty-three when life ripped us apart.
Years later, I’m breaking my vow and returning to the ranch, not as a guest but its new owner. West might want me gone, but even he has to admit the only way to save his family’s legacy is with my help.
It’s not easy working side by side and facing those old memories. But this situation is only temporary. We’re at a crossroads. And as long as I don’t let myself fall in love with West Haven again, maybe this is our chance to put those ghosts to rest. Maybe this time we’ll finally be able to say goodbye.
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EXCERPT:
“The boys don’t know about this.” Curtis’s announcement was no more than a murmur, but he might as well have screamed it in my ear.
“W-what?”
“I didn’t know how to tell them.”
My jaw dropped. “So you just . . . didn’t?”
He shook his head.
Oh, hell. Seriously? How could he have kept this a secret? Was this my punishment for trying to do the right thing? Having to watch as he delivered the bad news? Or was he expecting me to tell them?
My temples throbbed with every question. This headache would be a migraine before the day was done.
“You will tell them.” I steeled my spine and splayed my fingers on the desk.
My desk.
This was my desk.
I wasn’t a guest. I wasn’t a spectator. I was here on business.
I was here to do what Dad had taught me to do.
From this moment on, I was in charge. And I was going to make Curtis tell his children that I was now the owner of the Crazy Mountain Cattle Resort.
“I’ll tell them.” Curtis nodded.
As the color drained from his face, my heart twisted.
He’d had over a month to tell them. Any other situation, and I wouldn’t feel an ounce of pity. He’d made his bed.
But this was Curtis. This was the man who’d helped me on my first horse. The man who’d befriended my father. The man who’d always made sure my family had an escape.
If he couldn’t do it, if he couldn’t tell West and Jax, then I’d do it for him.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
I sat up straighter as my pulse raced. Breathe. In and out.
Four days on the road, prepping myself for this, and I still wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to face him.
“Dad?” Jax called.
Phew. The air rushed from my lungs. The relief would be short lived, but I’d take every millisecond I could get.
“In here.” Curtis kept his gaze trained out the window.
Jax breezed into the office, drawing up short when he spotted me behind the desk. “Hi. Sorry. Thought Dad was alone.”
“Hi.” I stood and held out my hand. “Indya Keller.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He studied my face as he returned the shake. “Or have we met?”
“We have.” I nodded. “But it was a long time ago.”
The last time I had seen Jax, he was a teenager, finishing his senior year of high school. Had he gone to college? Or had he been here for the past four years?
He’d filled out his broad frame and lost the softness of youth. Dark-blond whiskers covered his jaw. His smile was easy. Charming. Not something he shared with his brother.
West’s smiles were always charming but never came easy.
Jax took the seat beside his father, kicking an ankle up over his knee. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes narrowed, no doubt wondering what I was doing on the wrong side of the desk. “What’s this about?”
“We’ll wait for West,” Curtis said.
Jax hummed and snatched a water, gulping half the bottle in the time it took for another pair of footsteps to echo in the hallway.
My shoulders drew toward my ears, but I forced them down. I donned the impassive expression I’d mastered lately. The expression Blaine hated. Ironic, because our marriage was the reason I’d learned it in the first place.
But despite the neutral facade, my heart drummed faster and faster. Then it stopped. The moment West appeared, everything stopped.
The world faded to a blur, and I forgot how to breathe.
God, he looked good. As rugged and handsome as the day I’d vowed never to visit this ranch again. His dark hair was a mess. There was a slight ring around it, like he’d been wearing a hat for hours today and he’d used his fingers to comb it out. His chiseled jaw was covered in thick, dark stubble.
His broad frame filled the doorway. The top two buttons on his chambray shirt were undone, the skin beneath tan and sweaty. There was a pair of leather gloves tucked in the back pocket of his faded Wranglers.
“What’s—” The moment he spotted me behind the desk, he came to an abrupt halt outside the door. “Indya?”
Once upon a time, I’d lived to hear that deep, gravelly voice. “Hi, West.”
His hazel eyes roamed my face, taking in every detail. Then they dropped to my hands on the desk. To the finger that used to wear a diamond ring.
“Have a seat,” Curtis said.
West’s gaze shifted to his father. Whatever he saw made his frame lock and his jaw clench. “Think I’ll stand.”
Of course he would.
There was no more obstinate, stubborn man on this planet than West Haven.
Curtis sighed, like he’d expected that reaction from his oldest son. He nodded, then swallowed hard, but didn’t speak.
Would he tell them? Or was he just going to sit there and stare at me?
The sound of my pounding heart was so loud, I was sure the men could hear it too.
Curtis kept his attention fixed on me like we were playing a game. Who would crack first? He wasn’t going to tell them, was he? Coward. He was going to make me do it.
“Dad?” Jax asked. “What’s—”
“I sold the ranch.”
The breath I’d been holding rushed from my lungs. The temperature in the room plummeted as Curtis’s statement settled deep.
“What the fuck?” Jax exploded out of his chair, the backs of his knees sending it skidding across the floor. “You sold the ranch?”
Waves of icy fury rolled off West’s body, but he didn’t move. He fixed his stare on me, pinning me to this horrible chair.
Curtis dropped his chin and managed a nod. The shame seemed to weigh so heavily on his shoulders I feared that flimsy chair would collapse.
“To you?” Jax pointed to my nose. “He sold it to you?”
“Yes,” I answered, still holding West’s gaze.
About Devney Perry:
Devney Perry is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over forty romance novels. After working in the technology industry for a decade, she abandoned conference calls and project schedules to pursue her passion for writing. She was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Washington with her husband and two sons.
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