Book Title: Road to a Cowboy
Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin
Cover Artist: Morningstar Ashley Designs
Release Date: August 6, 2024 (audio coming early September)
Genre: Contemporary M/M romance
Tropes: Childhood friends to lovers, small town, cowboys
Themes: Family, friendship
Series: Windsor, Wyoming 2
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 57 000 words
It’s book two in the Windsor, Wyoming trilogy, but can be read as a standalone and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links
Book one in the trilogy, Home for a Cowboy,
will be on sale for $0.99 until Aug 15
Blurb
Detour
Five years after the death of his spouse, Austin MacIsaac is ready to find love again—and he’s got the perfect guy in his sexy cowboy of a best friend, Cal Anderson. If only he can convince Cal to detour out of the friend zone.
Road work ahead
Cal has been in love with Austin for longer than he can remember. The man has been his rock through the ups and downs of messy family drama. But shaking up their friendship for something more could lead them down a bumpy and unsafe road.
Merge
Amid a backdrop of the Wyoming mountains and under a summer sky, can Austin and Cal merge their lives into one and let the road to romance lead to happily ever after?
A few minutes later, after a reminder from Derek that Austin had a standing invitation to family dinner and family game nights, Austin jogged down the back steps of the house. A handful of cowboys milled around near the horse barn, but none of them were Austin’s.
But then that cowboy appeared from the opposite side of the barn, a swagger to his hips that Cal only adopted while at work. Like he knew he was top shit here and had the attitude to prove it.
It was hot as fuck.
And there Austin went, getting hot under the collar again. Didn’t help that Cal was, as he’d pointed out earlier, twice as messy as he’d been after fixing Chester’s car.
Didn’t help either that his T-shirt hugged his chest and arms and that his jeans hugged his thighs and ass so, so nicely. Austin wanted to tumble him into the grass and kiss his stupid face off until their lips hurt.
Gulping, he pulled the collar of his T-shirt away from his neck. He was overly warm and it had nothing to do with the temperature.
Las was at Cal’s side and he said something that made Cal smile. It was unreserved and friendly, very big brother speaking to little brother. It tugged at something in Austin’s chest, and he zipped quickly to his car to grab the bag of candy before leaning against the fence that separated the Windsor homestead from the nearby working areas.
“Hey,” he said, leaning one foot on the bottom railing.
Cal’s smile shifted. Became less familial and more . . .
Well. Austin didn’t know what. He’d never seen that kind of smile on Cal’s face before. There was a hint of wariness to it Austin didn’t like and didn’t know how to interpret.
He offered Cal the candy. “Twizzler?”
Again Cal’s smile shifted, wariness disappearing under amusement as he and Las approached.
“What’s with you two and Twizzlers?” Las asked. From the other side of the fence, he leaned his forearms on the top rung.
“They’re good,” Austin said.
“They’re fine,” Las countered. “There’s better candy out there.”
“But these are Cal’s favorite.”
From under the brim of his hat, Cal squinted at him. “No, they’re your favorite.”
Austin stared at him. “No, they’re not.”
“But . . .”
Las, looking all too delighted at the turn in conversation, got more comfortable against the railing.
“You brought them for us to share in kindergarten,” Austin said, as though the answer were right there.
“Yeah,” Cal said slowly, nudging up the brim of his hat. “Because you had them in your lunchbox the week before.”
“Because you had them in your lunchbox the week before that.”
“Fascinating,” Las whispered, grinning like he’d discovered the secret to life. “It’s like the chicken or the egg.”
“Do you . . . like Twizzlers?” Austin asked his best friend.
Cal hesitated. “I don’t hate them. Do you like Twizzlers?”
“They’re fine.”
“That’s what I said,” Las interjected. He removed his hat and ran one hand through hair that was nearly as dark as midnight, then pointed the hat at them as he walked away. “I told you—there’s better candy out there.”
Feeling mysteriously unsettled, Austin stared at the bag in his hand. “Should I start bringing something different?”
“And mess with tradition?” Cal plucked a Twizzler out of the bag. “I think there’s karmic retribution for that.”
Austin chuckled. “Oh, is there? Will the universe smite me for changing things up?”
“You don’t know that it won’t. Why take the chance?” Cal’s phone beeped in his pocket, and he pulled it out as he bit off the end of the Twizzler. “Sorry, let me make sure Ewan and Orson don’t need me. I sent them to check the fencing in the east pastures.”
Austin hopped up to sit on the fence between them. “I thought those two didn’t get along.”
“They don’t, which is why I keep forcing them to work together. Builds character.”
“Or maybe you’re hoping one of them will kill the other and save you the trouble?”
Cal chuckled, but it faded fast when he opened his phone.
Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.
An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.
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