In this sexy, sweet prequel novella to her new series, USA TODAY bestselling author Maisey Yates welcomes readers to the charming small town of Copper Ridge, Oregon, where it’s never too late for second chances
There’s not much about his teenage years that Jake Caldwell can be proud of. Except maybe for keeping his hands off cute, kindhearted Cassie Ventimiglia. She was the only one who saw him as more than a tattooed rebel who couldn’t wait to leave the ranching life behind. Now he’s back in Copper Ridge to sell his father’s property—and staying right above Cassie’s coffee shop. And out of nowhere, the girl he’s never forgotten is offering a whole lot more than fresh-baked muffins…
Jake’s dark, smoldering appeal hasn’t changed one bit. But Cassie has. Following everyone else’s rules didn’t quite work out. Time to ask for what she’s always wanted…and what Jake’s more than happy to give: a wild, hot romance that could make a one-time bad boy realize he’s back for good.
Don’t miss Part Time Cowboy , the first in the Copper Ridge series, from HQN Books!
Shoulda Been
a Cowboy
A Copper Ridge Novella
Maisey Yates
To my daughter.
I’ll always love you, and I’ll always be proud of you.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
JAKE CALDWELL HAD most definitely improved with age. It really didn’t seem fair. Rather than gaining five pounds around his hips like she had, his chest and shoulders had grown broader, his waist trim, his stomach washboard flat. It almost, almost, made her rue her addiction to the Loganberry tarts she stocked in the pastry display at The Grind. Almost.
Cassie Ventimiglia slowly sank down behind the counter, putting Jake, who was outside dismounting his motorcycle, out of her sight. She didn’t need to spend any more time looking at him. She needed to take inventory of her soy milk. She opened the mini fridge that was built into the counter and began to dutifully do just that.
Her soy milk supply was sufficient. Which was good to know. Important. Much more important than taking in the view outside.
Cassie rose again slowly, eyeing the small dining room. Most of the women in it were casting subtle glances outside. And Cassie figured they weren’t checking out Copper Ridge’s main street.
Jake had that effect. But he always had. Even back when he’d been that dark scowling boy with perfect hair and wicked blue eyes wandering the halls of the high school, tattooed and bad news, and everything that kept mothers of good girls awake at night. And ensured that the fathers of good girls kept their shotguns close by.
Actually, that was probably why he had been so fascinating. As far as Copper Ridge, Oregon, went, he had been universally disapproved of. And what was more attractive than that, when you were seventeen and just starting to figure out that there was more to life than what your parents had told you? Nothing. At least not as far as she’d been concerned.
Of course, she had actually gotten to know him. Had seen beneath some of his tough exterior. Had bothered to see him as a human being. For all the good that had done her. She’d just ended up with a crush wider than the Columbia River Gorge. And before she’d been able to confess that, before she’d been able to tell him just what she wanted from him, he’d left.
She seemed to have that effect on men. But she wasn’t going to think about that right now. She was going to think about muffins. She could inventory those next. So hooray for that.
Anyway, she had no reason to be...staring at him, thinking about him, drooling after him. He’d given no indication at all that he was interested in her as anything other than a tenant he happened to live near. He was aloof to the point of being cool. That was something that had changed.
When he’d been a teenager he’d had an air of intensity, anger and restlessness about him. Now he just seemed...well, he seemed almost bored to be here. Like he was looking through things.
Like he was looking through her.
The little bell above the door chirped and she looked up just in time to see Jake walk in. He had been here for more than a week. Back in town, staying in the apartment next to hers. It was a complicated situation, really.
Jake’s father had owned the building that housed her coffee shop and the apartments above it, in addition to a couple of other properties in town and a ranch just outside of it. That meant Jake was the owner now. And effectively her landlord.
At least he hadn’t changed much since he’d arrived, with the exception of inhabiting the neighboring apartment. She only hoped he continued to not change things.
He came into the coffee shop every day and ordered an Americano and a muffin. Which meant that she should be used to him by now. It meant that her stomach should not go into a free fall, her heart should not skip several beats, and her palms should most certainly not get sweaty.
In addition to the fact that his presence was old news by now, she was thirty-two. She was, in the immortal words of Lethal Weapon’s Roger Murtaugh, too old for this shit.
And yet the second he’d walked in each morning, her heart rate had indeed increased, her stomach had plummeted, and her palms were definitely starting to get a little bit damp.
She forced her breathing to slow as he approached. He was holding his bike helmet beneath his arm, propping it against his hip. There was something epically badass about him when he stood that way. It was as appealing now as it had been fifteen years ago. And she had no idea why that was. He’d never been a good idea for her, never been a logical match. Her hormones had never registered that fact.
He laid his helmet on the counter and pushed his hand through his dark hair, drawing her eyes to the tattoo of dark evergreen trees that wrapped around his arm. They started at his wrist and extended up to