Hank

By Jan Scarbrough

Hank brings two romantic series together: The Dawsons of Montana and Ghost Mountain Ranch!

Christmastime at the Six Buckles Guest Ranch. Hank, the Dawson’s trusted wrangler, nurses a broken heart after Liz’s marriage to Chaz. Ashleigh, Chaz’s daughter, is new to ranch life. Can she survive the results of her bad judgement and make a home with her father’s new in-laws?

On Christmas Eve, Hank accepts the job of ranch foreman over the mountains in the Gallatin Canyon. But something dark is happening at the Ghost Mountain Ranch, where the past is reaching out in dangerous ways to haunt the living.

To find out what happens to Hank next, read Darby: Ghost Mountain Ranch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jan Scarbrough
• Release date: Jul 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780997192049

Jan Scarbrough

Whether it is the Bluegrass of Kentucky, the mountains of Montana, or Medieval England, Jan Scarbrough brings you home with romances from the heart. Jan Scarbrough is the author of two popular Bluegrass series, writing heartwarming contemporary romances about home and family, single moms and children. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show. Leaving her contemporary voice behind, Jan has written paranormal gothic romances: Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist, and Timeless. Her medieval romance, My Lord Raven is a story of honor and betrayal. A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books with the help of her husband. She has published 26 romances. Jan lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with one rescued dog, one rescued cat, and a husband she rescued 23 years ago. When she isn't writing, she loves to ride American Saddlebred horses, drive grandchildren to activities, and volunteer with Alley Cat Advocates. There is nothing she enjoys more than curling up with a good book. Subscribe to Jan’s monthly newsletter and receive a free eBook.https://janscarbrough.com/contact/

Book preview

Chapter One

Six Buckles Guest Ranch

December 2018

Hank Slade rested a forearm on his saddle horn and leaned against it. He peered through the ears of his horse across the valley shrouded in a mantle of snow that stretched out below him. Sagebrush, still smelling pungent and sweet despite the weather, poked through the otherwise unbroken, white landscape. Warmer air from the creek-fed lake generated a ghostly haze in the valley so that the ranch cabins, lodge, and outbuildings appeared cloaked, as if hiding from the world.

Just like Hank wanted to do—hide—or, better yet, run away.

That morning, after plowing the snow from the gravel road to the county highway, he’d ridden up the cleared road behind the lodge on his favorite horse simply to get away. He was a cowboy and wrangler, a stock man who had tended the Dawson cattle and then dude ranch horses for almost twenty-five years. Trouble was, he had nowhere else to go. No real place of his own. No living family. The ranch was his only home and the Dawsons his only family ever since the patriarch Jim Dawson had given him a job when he was thirty and fresh out of the army.

The first Mrs. Dawson had been alive then. Bonnie was the mother of the oldest child Ben. She’d embodied everything a good wife and mother should be, but, as in many things beautiful and perfect, death took her early, throwing the ranch—its real family and extended family—into a tailspin of grief and despair.

But it wasn’t long before Liz came into everyone’s lives. Poor Jim had not known what had hit him, falling hard for a divorced mother with baggage—a ten-year-old son named Brody Caldera. Jim had been riddled with guilt at first, and probably for years after their wedding. Ben had resented a new stepmother, particularly one as young and beautiful as Liz, so soon after his mother’s death. But things have a way of happening for a reason. Baby Mercer was the unexpected cause of a happy marriage that lasted until Jim’s untimely death from a riding accident almost two years earlier.

But if things happen for a reason, why do bad things happen to good people?

That was a question Hank could not answer. He was merely a wrangler, not a philosopher or theologian. He dealt with the everyday care of living creatures. He handled routine. Day in and day out, he fed and watered stock, tended hooves and fresh cuts, brushed manes and tails, cleaned and fixed saddles and bridles, mucked stalls, and in the summer saddled horses for city dudes and guided them into the mountains so they could enjoy the beauty of Montana.

His life was simple. His only pleasure, his guitar and a few songs around the summer campfire. He enjoyed the accolades of the ranch guests. He enjoyed helping them mount a steady quarter horse and laughed with them when they dismounted, sore from using muscles never exercised when sitting behind a computer screen. And he loved the Dawsons—from watching the older children grow, to teaching Mercer to ride and rope, to showing Livy—Brody and Stef’s daughter—how to care for her new pony. He’d lived through the tragedy of Bonnie’s and then Jim’s deaths. The Dawsons’ happiness was his happiness. Their sadness, his.

He just didn’t know how he could live through Liz’s remarriage.

Earlier in September

Hank had been at the corral when the new dude arrived. Livy had told him his name— Charles Kingston, nicknamed Chaz, some sort of Hollywood mogul. Stef and her friend Leigh had something up their sleeves where this guy was concerned. Something about Stef’s novel Under Montana Stars and making the eBook into a TV movie. They’d invited the guy to the ranch for two weeks, and because it was the end of the season, he was the only guest.

Hank had glanced up when the dude approached the corral. Can I help you?

The guy had nodded. Liz will be down in a minute. She’s taking me on another trail ride.

I bet. Hank couldn’t avoid giving a sarcastic laugh. He’d seen the two of them together earlier that morning, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Excuse me?

Hank’s anger had spiked. He strode over to the fence and glared at the man, wanting to punch the guy so badly his own jaws ached. But this Chaz guy was a guest and Hank was simply an employee. He knew his place in the grand scheme of

Reviews for Hank

[Nancy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hank is heartbroken when Liz his late boss James widow meets and marries Chaz. He has had unrequited love for her since she came to the McKenna Ranch and married James. Read and find out what the future holds for him.