All in with the Maverick Montana (Mavericks: The Tenacity Social Club #3)

Chapter One

A my Hawkins knew a thing or two about working dangerous jobs.

As a rodeo star, she’d been bucked off the back of horses, slammed into gates by the roughstock, and stared down by bucking bulls. But stocking shelves at Strom and Son Feed and Farm Supply—the store owned by her sister’s fiancé, Caleb, and his father, Nathan—was proving to be even more dangerous than getting between a cow and its newborn calf.

In the six weeks she’d been at the Tenacity, Montana store, she’d learned not to separate a grumpy ranch hand from his feed order. What she hadn’t apparently learned yet was how not to mix up said orders.

“What happened now?” Faith said as Amy ducked behind the cash counter, using her sister as a human shield to hide from the surly man marching through the store with Caleb.

His face was beet red, his eyebrows pinched in a tight knot in the middle of his forehead. Amy couldn’t tell if the color was from working out in the sun or if he was huffing and puffing over getting a truckful of feed back to his ranch before realizing it wasn’t what he ordered.

“I might have sent the wrong order home with the MacPhersons.”

“Not again.” Faith checked the computer above the cash drawer, the corner of her mouth twitching. “That’s twice in two months.”

“In my defense,” Amy said, staring over her shoulder, “the MacPhersons’ and the McPetersons’ orders always show up at the same time.”

Faith smirked, flicking her long, dark braid out of the way as she made an adjustment to the online order. “I’ll handle it. Can you finish ticketing the clearance items in aisle two for me?” She passed Amy a roll of yellow stickers, each of them indicating a twenty-five percent markdown.

“Sure you wanna let me handle that alone?”

“Really? You can rope a calf in seven seconds but you can’t put some stickers on some feed bags?”

“Of course I can. I just think it’s funny when you get all those stress wrinkles across your forehead.”

Faith smoothed her hand across her forehead, glowering at Amy. “You’re lucky I like you,” she said as Amy waltzed away. “Because you are definitely our worst employee!”

“I don’t know… Pretty sure Caleb’s angling to make me employee of the month.”

“Doubtful.”

Amy turned around and framed up a square with her fingers against the wall. “I think my face would look great right behind the register.”

“As if. We might put your face up there as the first person ever fired from Strom and Son.”

“Firstly, you’re not paying me. This is free labor. So remember that when you try to fire me. Secondly, you’d miss me too much.”

“Miss you hogging our guest room,” Faith muttered as Amy walked away grinning.

To be fair, Faith had done Amy a huge favor, inviting her down to Tenacity. She hadn’t quite known what to expect of the little hardscrabble town in Montana, but when Faith offered her the guest room, Amy had eagerly accepted. After a bad breakup, she’d been desperate to escape Bronco, leaving the crowded city and social media scene behind in exchange for some small-town refuge. From what Amy had seen so far, there wasn’t much going on in Tenacity, and that suited her just fine. Spending time with Faith and putting some work in at the store was about all the social activity she could handle right now. Besides, she’d learned recently that there were worse things than stocking shelves and ringing up orders for surly cowboys.

Heartbreak was certainly worse.

And rejection.

And finding out that the person you thought you loved had up and gotten married while you were apart.

That was definitely worse.

So, as far as Amy was concerned, stocking shelves was a dream come true.

There was something almost calming about stocking shelves. Maybe it was the repetitiveness of the motion. She appreciated the neatness and the order. She liked that everything had a place. Surprisingly, she also enjoyed the quiet, even if it meant taking the occasional order from Faith. If someone would have told her all that six weeks ago, she’d have laughed them right out of a rodeo arena. Now she was starting to crave the slower pace in Tenacity. The monotony. And especially the distance from her whirlwind life.

Amy stopped in front of a stack of feed bags, double-checking the brand before she started tabbing them with yellow stickers.

“Amy?” Faith called from somewhere in the store.

Strom and Son Feed and Farm Supply was a large, boxy building with shelves upon shelves of anything a rancher could ever need. There were bags of livestock feed for a variety of animals—cattle, sheep, goats, pigs. But also grain and fresh hay and corn. The building always smelled faintly sweet, a little like home if Amy was honest, which probably had something to do with how much time she’d spent mucking out horse stalls growing up. There were also feed buckets and salt licks and horse tack and an aisle with toys for enrichment.

“Yeah?” she said.

Faith appeared at the end of the aisle.

“Nathan said the new April shipment of feed came in. He’s gonna get the guys to unload the pallets. Help me with inventory when they’re done?”

“Sure thing,” Amy said. Despite the earlier feed order mix-up, she’d been a quick study with Faith as her guide, and she was starting to know the business like the back of her hand. They made a good team, which wasn’t surprising, considering they’d spent a lot of their life traveling the world’s rodeo circuit together along with their other sisters, Tori, Carly and Elizabeth, before settling in Bronco not long ago. Because of that, they often fell into a natural rhythm, one that reminded Amy of being on horseback and barrel races and rope tricks.

To look at them, it would be hard to tell they were sisters. Faith had high cheekbones, beautiful dark brown eyes, clear brown skin, and was only about five foot two. Though what she lacked in height, she made up for with her spunky attitude. Meanwhile, Amy was almost five foot seven, white, with bright blue eyes and straight, shoulder-length brown hair she left loose unless she was riding. Frankly, Amy didn’t share looks with any of her sisters. She didn’t even share DNA, considering they were all adopted. But the way they could read each other and the way they all loved fiercely—those were the things that made them family. The Hawkins Sisters had always been known as a group of strong rodeo-riding women, and Amy liked to think they lived up to that.

Or, at least, she had. Amy had only been away from the rodeo for a short time, but some days she felt like a completely different person. Was that what Faith saw when she looked at her now? Someone looking to step out of the limelight? While living in Bronco had been nice, it wasn’t exactly a quiet existence. With more of her family settling in the city, The Hawkins Sisters had become the talk of the town. It had become almost impossible for Amy to go out in public without being recognized.

But Tenacity was different. Here she didn’t have to traipse around in sunglasses and baseball caps all the time, and most days she could forget that Truett McCoy—the cowboy turned actor whose posters graced the walls of young fans around the world—dumped her to run off and marry his costar back in February.

There were moments when that realization still hit her hard, though she did her best not to mope. Faith would only worry more than she already was.

Amy finished up her task and headed back to the cash desk to return the roll of unused stickers. As she did, she turned up the radio, the song ringing out over the store speakers. She hummed along, grabbing a small bag of feed to return to a shelf in aisle four. When the song finished, the radio hosts started chatting, and it took Amy a moment to understand why the hairs on her arms had stood up.

“Can we talk about everyone’s favorite cowboy for a second?” one of the hosts said.

Amy knew immediately that they were talking about Tru.

“Oh my gosh, yes!” the female host said. “Let’s.”

“Okay, last we heard, Tru McCoy was linked to several women prior to his whirlwind marriage. Isn’t that right, Cady?”

Amy glowered at the shelf. There was only one thing worse than falling for a cowboy, and that was falling for a cowboy turned movie star. Of that, she was certain. In recent years, Tru’s name above a marquee virtually guaranteed a box office smash, and his popularity had skyrocketed. Everyone was talking about him. After the breakup, she’d avoided the magazines and the trashy entertainment news channels, but apparently she’d forgotten about the radio.

“Wasn’t he also supposedly seeing some unknown rodeo star?” the male host said. “We all know Montana is bustling with them.”

Amy bristled. That’s all she was in the end? Just an unknown, unnamed rodeo star? Her chest constricted, and she felt like a fool. Damn Tru McCoy, and damn him again for making her feel this way. She blinked back the tears she could already feel gathering in the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t keep letting him affect her this way.

The host continued. “But apparently none of that matters because according to sources, his heart has always belonged to his new bride. Isn’t that sweet, Cady?”

“Almost as sweet as you, Doug. And we definitely like a man who knows what he wants. We’ll be right back after the break.”

What he wants? Amy thought. Ha! Anger pooled inside her. It was no wonder her emotions had been all over the place since arriving in Tenacity back in February. Just bringing up Tru’s name made her a weepy, blubbering mess, never mind being reminded that she’d been second fiddle all along. It was embarrassing and insulting. But what was even more mortifying was her reaction to the news after this many weeks. She’d been through breakups before. And she likely would again. She just needed to stop thinking about Tru. All it did was upset her and exhaust her, and she couldn’t spend all her time trying to sleep away these feelings.

“And we’re back,” the radio host announced. “Talking about everyone’s favorite heartthrob, Tru McCoy.”

Hearing that she was only one of his many women shouldn’t have surprised her—this was what happened when you fell for cowboy-hat-wearing movie stars. But the tears still threatened to spill, and Amy tugged a little too hard on the bag of feed she was putting away. It slipped from the shelf suddenly, sliding right through her outstretched hands.

It hit the floor, splitting at the corner, and the feed poured out all over her shoes in a dusty pile, sending pellets and grain dancing across the aisle. Amy swore under her breath. At least, she thought it was under her breath. It must have been louder than she thought, because Faith appeared a moment later and that made her tear up harder.

“Everything okay?”

“It’s all good,” Amy said. “Just a little accident. No big deal, I’ve got it.” She did her best to avoid Faith’s eye. Though they’d never discussed her fling with Tru, and Faith had never directly asked about him, Amy suspected that she knew. Sisters always knew these kinds of things. It was one of those special powers they were gifted with. That and the ability to annoy you in three seconds flat. Still, mortified at her reaction, Amy shook off the tears and hurried to the supply cupboard to grab a broom.

What did they say? Never cry over spilled milk? And here she was almost crying over spilled cattle feed. If anything, Amy should be ecstatic that she’d dodged that Tru-shaped bullet. He’d clearly never liked her despite his many declarations, and the last thing she needed to be was tied to a snake of a man. She was more grateful than ever that they’d used protection when they’d finally slept together back around Christmas. She’d even taken a pregnancy test to be sure because she’d felt sick right after the breakup, and with her birth control, she hardly ever got her period. With that worry assuaged, now Amy was mostly just angry for getting caught up in Tru’s charms in the first place. She wasn’t na?ve. She’d lived and breathed the celebrity world for most of her life. She should have known better than to trust a cowboy with a handsome smile.

Amy swept the spilled feed into a pile, then dragged over the garbage bin, crouching to scoop grain onto the dustpan.

A set of footsteps drew near. Amy looked up, expecting Faith, but instead she saw a man—talk about a cowboy with a handsome smile. His hair was cut just above the shoulders. Dark brown, like his eyes. It was the kind of hair that looked especially good swept back under a cowboy hat. Much like the one he carried in his hand. Not that she was thinking of cowboys. Nope. Amy had strictly sworn off cowboys. But with his dusty blue jeans and snug T-shirt and olive complexion, she couldn’t help but stare. He tilted his head, his gaze lingering, and for a moment, Amy wondered if he’d recognized her as one of The Hawkins Sisters. He wandered a little closer, and she prepared for the question, wincing internally.

“You know,” he said. “If you get a couple of chickens in here, they’d take care of that for you no problem.”

Amy blinked up at him, then she laughed, caught off guard by his comment. It was a real, deep belly laugh. She couldn’t even say why she found it so funny, but as the sound faded between them, she almost couldn’t remember why she’d been such an emotional mess. “You’re probably right.” She got to her feet. “Unfortunately, we’re fresh out of chickens.”

“You sure? You checked the back?”

“Almost positive. The only chicken you’re going to find back there is Faith’s chicken salad sandwich.”

“Probably not as helpful in that form.”

Amy bit her lip. A funny cowboy. Now that was a dangerous combination. “No. I wouldn’t say so.” She glanced at the flatbed cart he’d left at the end of the aisle. “Do you… Can I help you find something?”

“I’m looking for a fortified cattle feed. It used to be over there by the door.”

“Oh, right,” Amy said, leading him out of the aisle and toward the far end of the store. “We’re doing some rearranging of the stock. Well, Faith and Caleb are. I’m just a lowly grunt worker.”

“As if,” Faith snorted from behind the cash desk as they passed. “I’m not forcing you to be here. Hi, Josh,” she called, waving to the man that followed Amy.

Josh, huh?

“I do good work for you,” Amy replied. “You should appreciate me more.”

Faith smiled a little smile. “I guess I shouldn’t bring up the earlier order mishap or the fact that you just wasted an entire bag of feed?”

“Take it out of my nonexistent salary,” Amy teased.

Faith crossed her arms, smirking. “I just might.”

Amy reached the far aisle and turned down it, lifting her hands in a kind of ta-da motion. “Here you go. Not sure which kind of feed you’re looking for, but all the fortified ones are here.”

“Thanks,” Josh said, scanning the shelf. “I haven’t seen you around before,” he added before she could walk away. He grabbed a couple bags and tossed them on his cart. Thick veins ran up his muscled forearms. “Uh…”

“Amy,” she supplied. “I came down to visit Faith back in February. Haven’t really gotten around to leaving yet, so I figured I better earn my keep.”

He smiled at her. It was a soft smile. The kind that might get her heart fluttering under different circumstances. He had one dimple in his cheek and lines by his eyes that told her he smiled often.

“And you?” she said. “You must not come by the store a lot.”

“Only about once a month,” Josh said. “To stock up on supplies. Sometimes I have Caleb arrange to deliver the larger orders if I can’t get away.”

That was likely why they hadn’t crossed paths yet. “Get away?” Amy prompted.

“From my cattle.”

“You have a ranch?”

“Yeah, Split Valley.” He raised his hand and gestured in a vague direction. “Up on Juniper Road?”

Amy bit her lip and shrugged. “I’m not super familiar with town yet. I haven’t been out much if you don’t count the store.”

“Right,” Josh said. “Well, Split Valley Ranch used to belong to my parents. When they retired, I took over.”

“Carrying on the tradition?” Amy said. She could appreciate that. She and her sisters had rodeoing in their blood.

“The Aventuras have been on that property for as long as anyone can remember.”

“Josh Aventura,” Amy said, mostly to herself. “Do you have any horses up at this ranch or just cattle?”

“A few horses. Makes getting around the property easier at times if I don’t need to take a truck out for repairs or something. And it’s easier to round up wayward cattle. Plus I just like to ride. Have ever since I was a boy.” He pulled another bag of feed off the shelf and added it to his cart. “What about you? Ride much?”

Amy almost laughed in his face. Did rodeo star Amy Hawkins ride? Her brows rose. He really had no idea who she was. What a treat , she thought, her gaze traveling up his forearm as he reached for another bag of feed. Her eyes landed on his biceps before she managed to tear her gaze away.

“You never answered my question,” he pointed out.

“I do ride,” she said. “It’s actually one of my favorite things.”

He flashed her a smile. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” This was usually about the time she’d say something about the rodeo, and his eyes would get wide as realization struck. A Hawkins Sister! Of course! But Amy bit back the rest of her explanation. It was refreshing having someone be interested in her without the name attached. Without knowing who she really was.

“So you came down to visit from… Where? Bronco?”

“How’d you know?” she asked.

He flicked his head in her direction. “Just a guess. But you look like a city girl.”

Amy glanced down at her attire. Sure, maybe her jeans were a little more expensive than what they wore around here, and her button-down was high-end, but she blended. Right? “What about you? Ever been to Bronco?”

He nodded. “A few times, especially when I was younger. But with the ranch I don’t have a lot of time for traveling.”

That was understandable. Amy suspected he also didn’t have time for a lot of things, like TV and radio and following what Tru McCoy was getting up to. He seemed like the type of guy who could really care less about Hollywood gossip. Where Tru had to be the center of attention in every room, Josh struck her as a little gruff, a little quiet. And with his dusty boots, there was certainly nothing flashy about him. He really didn’t seem to have any interest in charming anyone, certainly not her, and maybe that’s exactly why Amy was so charmed by him.

Faith had been telling her for weeks to get out of the house and meet people. Amy had brushed her off more times than she could count, but right at this very moment a part of her strongly considered asking Josh out for coffee. It had been a long six weeks since everything had ended with Tru, and Josh seemed like he might be interested in her enough to say yes. If she could manage to pry him away from his cattle.

But as she watched him load the last few bags of feed onto his cart, she reconsidered. She no longer felt like she could trust her own judgment after the Tru situation. Maybe Josh was just being friendly. Tenacity was small; people took a genuine interest because they cared, not because they were trying to flirt. Maybe she’d read far too much into a handsome smile.

“Ready?” she said as Josh finished up. “I can ring you up at the cash desk.”

Josh nodded. “I think that’s everything.”

They walked to the front of the store together. Amy stood behind the register and totaled Josh’s order.

Josh paid, his eyes lifting to meet hers briefly. Amy tore the receipt free and handed it to him. She might be mistaken, but for a second he seemed to linger, like he wanted to ask her something. Then he just smiled and said, “Good to meet you, Amy. I appreciate all your help today.”

“Of course. I was happy to. If you don’t mind telling Faith that the next time you see her,” she teased. “I’m gunning for employee of the month.”

“Well, I don’t know how you could possibly have competition.”

“That’s what I keep saying.”

They chuckled and Josh ducked his head, that dimple in his cheek deepening as he pushed his cart across the store. Amy watched him until he disappeared out the door.

“You know,” Faith said, coming up behind her. She leaned her chin on Amy’s shoulder. “I think that’s the most words I’ve ever heard him say in all the time he’s been coming in here.”

Amy glanced at her. Faith wore that shrewd look she got when she was sussing something out.

“I’m serious. The best Caleb and I usually get is a polite grunt of acknowledgment. If Iris is around, sometimes she’ll inquire after his parents and he’ll give her a nod and a shrug.” Iris was Caleb’s mother. “Personally, I didn’t even know the man was capable of that much conversation.”

“Oh, come on,” Amy said.

“I think he liked you. Who knows why?”

Amy scoffed. “Rude.”

“You should have asked him for coffee.”

“I was just being nice. He was just being nice.”

“You asked if he had horses. You were getting down to the things that matter.”

Amy laughed. She did have a soft spot for a man who loved to ride as much as she did. “I was trying to get you a sale. Now Caleb’s gonna have no choice but to put my picture on the wall.”

“We’re probably not gonna see Josh back here for a month. You have four weeks to work up the courage to ask him out.”

“Why are you so obsessed with me getting out to meet people?”

“Because it’s good for you. And because you can’t sit home every night watching 90 Day Fiancé .”

Amy made a vague hum of agreement. She was developing quite the evening routine. “I really was just trying to be friendly.”

“You could have continued being friendly over coffee.”

“Your suggestion is noted and I have chosen to ignore it.”

“I swear I’m setting you up with the next single cowboy that walks in here.”

“Good luck with that,” Amy said.

“You know, sometimes I have good advice,” Faith said, walking around the counter as a customer flagged her down for help. “You should listen to me every now and then.”

“What was that?” Amy said, reaching to turn up the radio again. “I couldn’t hear a word you said.”

Faith rolled her eyes. “You’re thirty-five. I thought you’d outgrow being annoying by now.”

“And that assumption was your first mistake.” Amy planned on annoying Faith well into old age. But even as she stood there, knowing it was best to leave handsome cowboys alone, she couldn’t stop her thoughts from straying back to Josh.