On the wild side a small.., p.1
On the Wild Side: A Small Town, Cowboy, Single Mom Romance, page 1
ON THE WILD SIDE
THE WILDS OF MONTANA
KRISTEN PROBY
CONTENTS
Title Page
A note to the reader
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
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On the Wild Side
A Wilds of Montana Novel
By
Kristen Proby
ON THE WILD SIDE
A Wilds of Montana Novel
Kristen Proby
Copyright © 2024 by Kristen Proby
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author, and your support and respect are appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this piece of work was made utilizing artificial intelligence.
A NOTE TO THE READER
I don’t usually offer trigger warnings in my books because I don’t feel like I typically need them, but I am going to warn you of a couple of things here, just in case. In On the Wild Side, you will see the death of a spouse and sexual and physical abuse of a minor, all off page. You will also see graphic nightmares due to the trauma mentioned above.
Kristen
PROLOGUE
ABBI
Five Years Ago
“What am I supposed to do without you?” I can’t stop the tears that fall onto my cheeks. Nate has been in and out of sleep, and they tell me that he’ll likely slip into a coma soon, so I should say everything that I want to say now, while he can still hear me.
He’s on a ventilator, but he’s watching me with those big, brown eyes, and his hand tightens on mine.
“I’m so sorry this happened,” I continue and lean in to kiss his cheek. “It’s not fair. It’s not right.”
He squeezes me again, comforting me.
Nate is the sweetest man on the planet. He’s good and generous, and he doesn’t deserve this.
“I’ll take care of Daisy. Don’t worry about us. I promise we’ll be okay.”
His eyes suddenly look panicked, and I brush my fingers through his hair, doing my best to calm him.
“I won’t let her near our baby, Nathan. I will not.” He blinks, and I can see that he wants to talk, but he can’t.
“I know,” I continue. “We already talked about this, and everything is in place, so she can’t touch us. I’ll make sure of it. And I’ll make sure that Daisy always knows you. She’s still so little.”
Not even two years. Nate didn’t even have two whole years with his daughter before he caught pneumonia that devolved into a systemic infection, causing his organs to fail.
He isn’t going to get better. He isn’t going to leave this hospital.
And I want to wail at the injustice of it.
“I love you.” His eyes droop, and I can see that he’s so, so tired. “Thank you for five wonderful years. Thank you for being my best friend and such an awesome dad to our baby girl.”
He squeezes my hand once more, and then he’s asleep again, and all I can do is lay my head on the bed next to him and cry.
CHAPTER ONE
BRADY
“Come on, girls, it’s going to be a bitch of a winter.” I crack my whip and maneuver my horse through the snowy pasture, herding our cattle to a meadow closer to the barn, where we can keep an eye on these ladies during the coldest months of the year. Winter in Bitterroot Valley, Montana is a bitch, and it’s only early December, which means we haven’t even hit the solstice yet. We’ve already seen record snowfall this year, which tells us that it’s going to be a long, cold season.
And we need to make sure these girls make it through calving season in a few months.
“Storm’s moving in,” my oldest brother, Remington, yells out to me, and I tip my head back to look up at the sky. The wind has picked up, and the clouds have dropped and grown darker.
“Fuck,” I mutter and crack the whip again before I call back to him. “We’ll be down this hill in an hour!”
“Let’s hope the blizzard holds out that long,” Lucky, our senior ranch hand, replies. He’s got to be ninety if he’s a day. I swear, there’s never been a time when Lucky wasn’t old as fuck. And no one on this ranch knows what they’re doing better than him.
Which is saying something, because my family has owned this land for well over a hundred years. My father, leading us all up ahead, passed the reins on to Remington a few years ago. Ranching, cattle ranching, is in our blood. It’s who we are.
It’s what we do.
But shit, I think Lucky worked for my grandfather once upon a time.
I wonder if he’s a goddamn vampire.
When we’re about a mile from the pasture that the cattle will spend the winter in, the snow starts to blow harder. None of us, the humans or the animals, want to be out here in this, but it reinforces that it’s the right time to move the herd.
We might not be able to get to them in a few days, and they’ll have a better chance of survival if we can watch them.
With our heads down and our minds on the work, we get everyone safely into the fenced field in less than the hour that I predicted.
“I’ll get the water,” Bruiser, another of our men, shouts as he swings off his horse and hurries to the troughs to fill them with fresh drinking water for our cows.
Despite the troughs being heated to keep them from freezing, we’ll have to come out here several times a day to break up ice that’ll form on the top.
Montana is fucking brutal.
But damn if I don’t love her.
We work as a team to spread hay, and when everyone is settled into their new home, we lead the horses into the barn so they can warm up and rest. We all put in one hell of a day.
I take my time with my boy, Blackjack, giving him apples and brushing him well before I settle a blanket on his back and kiss his cheek.
“You did great today, boy.” He nudges my shoulder, and I grin, ignoring the twinge that’s always there in that joint. “Yeah, we both did, huh? Good boy. I’ll see you in the mornin’. You get some rest.”
I kiss him once more and then close the door of his stable behind me as I walk out with the others.
“Want to come in for dinner?” Remington asks me, then narrows his eyes on me when I roll that same shoulder.
“You could join us, too, if you want,” Bruiser adds. We have a house here for the hands to live in, and those cowboys make some damn good food.
I usually eat at either my brother’s or with the hands, but I shake my head.
“Thanks, guys, but I have a date tonight.”
My brother turns and frowns at me in surprise. I don’t usually date at all, and I would never announce it to anyone, so the look on his face makes me laugh.
“I’m taking Daisy to the father/daughter dance at her school.”
“Shit, that’s right,” Rem says, dragging his hand down his face. “I have to take Holly to that. I’d better go get cleaned up.”
“Me, too.”
“Have fun,” Lucky says with a wave. “I’m gonna go put some chili on the stove.”
The other two men walk in the direction of the bunkhouse, and I walk with Rem out to his truck.
“I guess I’ll see you there,” I say with a wink.
“I hate these things,” Rem complains with a sigh. “I love my girl, but I hate dances.”
“Come on, it’s only a couple of hours.” I laugh again and head over to my 4Runner. “See you later.”
“Wait,” Rem says, his hands on his hips. “That shoulder giving you trouble?”
I shake my head with a sigh. “You know my long list of injuries over the years, Rem. Something’s always giving me trouble. It’s the cost of being a cowboy.”
“You’re an idiot,” he reminds me.
With a laugh and a wave, I hop into the vehicle and drive the couple of miles over to the old cabin that I live in here on the Wild River Ranch. It’s the oldest dwelling on the property, and it could use some updating, but it suits me fine. I’ve lived in the tiny two-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin for almost a decade, and I haven’t needed anything more.
Besides, I really only sleep here. I’m always working the ranch or riding a bull. At the very least, I train on the drop barrel daily so I don’t get rusty. There’s no time for anything else.
But when Daisy asked me to take her to her little dance, th
Only an asshole would have turned her down.
Besides, I like the kid. She hangs out with Holly all the time, and Daisy’s mom, Abbi, is always with my sisters, since they started up their women in business group. And that part, the part where Abbi’s always around? That’s harder to swallow.
Because she’s fucking beautiful. I want to have my way with her, and nothing good can come of that, so I have to keep my distance.
“Good job doing that,” I mutter as I finish in the shower and towel off. “Taking her kid somewhere is definitely not the way to stay away from the mom.”
I shake my head in disgust as I get dressed. I’m wearing a goddamn suit tonight. I usually only do that for weddings and funerals.
And yet, here I am, the consummate bachelor, taking a little girl to her dance.
My phone pings with a text, and I see that it’s Abbi.
Abbi: Hey! The snow is really coming down here. We understand if you don’t want to brave the roads to come all the way into town from the ranch tonight. It might not be safe.
I smirk. I’ve been driving into town from this ranch for half my life. Sure, I’ll take it easy, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.
Me: I’ll be there in an hour.
The bubble bounces, then stops for several seconds before it comes back, as if she doesn’t know what to say.
Abbi: Okay, we will see you soon. Please be careful.
After I tie my purple tie—Daisy was sure to let me know that she’d be wearing her favorite color, purple, to the dance—I grab my black Stetson and head out. Of course, I have a stop to make before I get to Abbi’s place.
Abbi was right; the roads into town are a bitch. I have to slow way down because it’s hard to see through the blowing snow, but I reach Bitterroot Valley without a mishap.
And just before my sister-in-law, Summer, closes her flower shop for the day.
“I just caught you.” I grin at Summer as I walk into her store. “Sorry, would have been here sooner, but the roads were shit. Hey, Chase.”
My brother, Chase, is standing by the counter, obviously waiting for his wife to finish working for the day.
“It’s bad enough out there that I’m taking Summer home with me, and we’ll get her car tomorrow,” Chase says.
“Good idea. That bend at Half Moon is icy. Be careful.”
“Will do,” Chase says with a nod.
“I have your flowers ready,” Summer says with a big grin and hurries into the big walk-in refrigerator where she keeps the flowers. She returns with a clear plastic box holding a corsage of purple roses and a bouquet of pink and orange flowers whose name is completely lost on me.
“Nice,” Chase says with a grin. “All of that for Daisy?”
“Fuck off,” I warn him, but my brother’s smile only grows. “I can’t take flowers to one and not the other.”
“Right, ‘cause that would be rude,” Chase says, and Summer rolls her eyes.
“Be nice to your brother,” she tells her husband. “He’s doing a really fun, cute thing for that little girl.”
“Yeah,” I agree, making Chase laugh.
“It is nice of you,” he concedes. “And you look…spiffy.”
“I don’t want to have to punch you and get blood all over my outfit.”
“I’m in uniform,” he points out. “I don’t want to have to arrest you for assaulting an officer.”
I smirk and pay Summer for the flowers.
“Be careful out there,” I call out to them as I walk to the door.
“Have fun,” Summer calls back.
Abbi lives in a little neighborhood of townhomes on the edge of town. It’s a newer area, with a park for Daisy and sidewalks and trees. It’s a nice part of town, which makes me feel good because I know that they’re safe.
And I don’t even want to think about why that’s something I worry about.
I pull into the driveway of Abbi’s end unit and cut the engine, and with the flowers in hand, I make my way to the door, which is immediately opened by Daisy, who is currently jumping up and down in her ruffly purple dress.
“You’re here! You’re here!”
“Well, hello there, Princess.” I wink at her and step inside when Abbi gestures, keeping most of the cold outside. When the door is closed, I offer Abbi her bouquet of flowers, and her gorgeous blue eyes soften. “For you.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” But she buries her nose in a bloom and fusses over them in that way that women do that makes a man feel like he gave them the world. “Thank you.”
“And for my gorgeous date, we have this.” I present the box, and Daisy frowns down at it.
“What is it?”
“A corsage,” Abbi says with a laugh. “Come on, let me set these in the kitchen, and we’ll get the corsage on you, baby.”
“Okay.” Daisy takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen. I like this townhome, with its open floor plan. This floor is just the kitchen and living room, with a door out to the garage, and another that I assume is a half bath.
The bedrooms are upstairs.
“You look handsome,” Daisy says with a bright smile. “And your tie matches my dress!”
“I heard a rumor that you’d be wearing purple.”
Daisy giggles. “I told you, silly.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Well, your dress is super pretty, and your hair is all curly.”
“Mommy did it,” she says shyly, gently touching the curls that fall around her shoulders.
“Here, I know how to do this, thanks to prom about a million years ago,” Abbi says as she takes the corsage out of the box and slips the wristband around Daisy’s wrist, tightening it to fit.
“This way,” Daisy says, “it’s easier for me to sniff them.”
She does and then closes her eyes, as if it’s the best thing she’s ever smelled.
“Good?” Abbi asks.
“I’m gonna smell them all night. Can we go now?”
“Pictures first,” Abbi says, grabbing her phone. “Here, stand by the fireplace.”
We pose for photos. In some, I’m holding Daisy’s hand. In others, I’m squatting next to her, and she has her arms around my neck.
It all makes me wonder where her father is. Who would willingly miss out on something this great?
Before long, we’re on our way to the school where the dance is being held. Daisy’s in the back seat of my 4Runner, chatting away.
The kid never shuts up, but it’s kind of cute.
“Robert is nice,” she says, “but he has red hair.”
“You don’t like red hair?”
I glance in the rearview and see her frown, thinking it over. “I do. Polly has red hair, and I like her.”
“Okay, so what’s wrong with his red hair?”
“It’s just…I can’t say because Mom says it’s mean.”
I frown back at her. “You’re not a mean girl.”
“I know. Okay, if I tell you, you can’t tell Mom I said it.”
“Cross my heart.”
“What does that mean?”
I grin as I pull into the parking lot.
“It means that I promise not to tell.”
“Okay. So, I don’t like Robert’s hair because it looks like spaghetti sauce.”
I wait, positive that there’s more to this story, but she doesn’t say anything else. So, I pull into a parking spot and cut the engine, unbuckle my seatbelt, and turn to look at the little girl who’s staring back at me with sober brown eyes.
“That’s why you don’t like him?”
“I don’t like spaghetti.” She leans her head back in despair. “We had to play duck, duck, goose the other day in the gym, and I didn’t want to touch his hair.”
“Because it looks like spaghetti.”
She nods solemnly.
“And what don’t you like about spaghetti?” Now I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever eat it again.
“It looks like Robert’s hair,” she says, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Well, sweetie, I think of all the things in the world, this isn’t so bad. You don’t have to touch his hair or eat spaghetti.”
