Blake McAllister hadn't always been a man of few words.
There was a time when his life was lined up like a fence post…steady, predictable, built with care. He had Carrie on his arm, a polished beauty with big dreams and bigger expectations.
She wanted the life that came with the McAllister name…the kind with headlines, champagne, and season tickets to every charity gala west of the Rockies.
And for a while, he thought he could give it to her.
Until his father got sick.
The man who taught him everything…how to ride, how to work, how to be still…was fading in front of him.
The ranch, his family's pride and joy, was struggling without leadership.
And suddenly, glitz and galas didn't matter anymore.
Not when there were cattle to move, bills to pay, a legacy to maintain and time was slipping through his fingers like river water.
Carrie gave him an ultimatum: Choose the life you promised me...or stay buried in this dirt.
He didn't have to answer.
She left anyway.
He didn't chase her.
Not because he didn't care.
But because by then, he'd already lost the one person he truly cared and respected above all else.
After his father died, Blake stopped pretending. Stopped showing up. Stopped explaining himself.
The billionaire stayed buried under denim and dust. The man he used to be got tucked away with the old photographs and the closed-up guest rooms.
Now, all he needed was the land, his Mom, sister Megan and best friends Duke and Mateo, as well as his trusted ranch hands, the quiet and his dog Rex…who, truth be told, was more companion than pet and sometimes, a better judge of character than most people Blake had ever known.
He kept his head down. Drove into town only when necessary. He didn't expect much from anyone. He didn't want to.
Which is why, on an ordinary afternoon near the hospital turnoff, a stray blue scarf fluttering across the road shouldn't have shaken his world.
But it did.
And in the minutes that followed…with crumpled fenders, a scattered crowd and a woman with curves and a stubborn light in her blue eyes…something would shift.
He didn't know it yet.
But that moment?
It was the beginning of everything he never knew he was missing...