Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Serena never expected to fall for the ruggedly handsome stranger who walked into her life, but Tristian’s smoldering looks and mysterious past are impossible to resist.
Their chemistry is off the charts, but when his past threatens their future, they’ll have to fight to keep their fiery romance alive. Will their love burn too hot to handle?
📚 Tropes You’ll Love in "Their Rustic Retreat":
🔥 City Boy Meets Small-Town Girl: When the big city collides with small-town charm, things get steamy.
💖 Forced Proximity: A little too close for comfort? More like just close enough! Watch the sparks fly when they’re stuck together.
👀 Tattooed Bad Boy: He’s got the ink, the attitude, and a past he can’t escape—but he just might have a heart of gold.
🚨 Secret Past: He’s hiding something, and it’s juicy. Can love survive when the truth comes out?
🌲 Rustic Setting: Forget fancy hotels—this love story unfolds in the woods, where passion is as wild as the scenery.
💥 Insta-Chemistry: One look, and it’s game over. Prepare for an explosive connection that neither of them saw coming!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
ONE
serena
It’s damn near a torrent of fur sometimes when I walk into the kennel.
We try to train them well, to get them to not rush people when they walk into the room, but they’re always so excited to see me. At least the training has stuck enough that they know not to knock me over, and instead all are excitedly looking at me with wildly shaking tails.
There’s one dog in particular I’m here for, though.
Reuben. My overly happy and excited golden retriever. He’s near climbing me, and I’m ruffling his fur. “Yes, yes, I know. I was so cruel for making you stay in here with all of the other dogs.”
I had just gotten back from a trip out of state to go look at a veterinary school to pursue my dream. I wasn’t too sure of the one I’d visited, but the truth is, I’m not too certain about any of them. The idea of being so far from home is daunting.
As such, I had to keep Reuben here with the rest of the dogs. One of the things us Moores did in Evergreen Valley was run a place for people to keep their dogs when they had to go somewhere without them, as well as some dog training and the like.
“You’re my little prince, and I wouldn’t make you stay with all these peasants if I didn’t really have to,” I say, the so-called peasant dogs ignoring my insult. I liked them all the same, too, and the feeling was certainly mutual. I usually took them out on walks, gave them treats, and fed them.
I always wanted to do more, though. I loved animals of all shapes and sizes, and while our home cared for a lot of them, whenever we had a sick or badly injured one enter into our care, we had to call in a veterinarian from Smithport. Evergreen Valley is such a small town that we didn’t have a vet who worked here, full time, outside of a few here or there, who were strictly contracted to rich folks and their fancy horses.
I tend to the dogs, giving them their morning meal and prepping Reuben for a walk. We step out, and I look over the family homestead. I guess it’s sort of a ranch with how we focus on raising and training animals, but given that Evergreen Valley is surrounded by woods and mountains, the term ranch seemed far too western.
It is home, though, including all of the people I love.
Including Hawk, the complete and total asshole that he is.
He’s sitting at one of our picnic tables, enjoying breakfast with his wife, Lavender. They met last year and fell quickly in love. He and his friends have been working on constructing a home for Hawk and Lavender, but there’s a particularly rough phase of the construction presently, so he and Lavender are back in the family home for now, if only for just a few weeks.
I’d never admit it to their faces, but I’m jealous as all hell of him and what he has. He’s so sweet to Lavender, and she’s sweet right back. The way they hold one another, the way they look into one another’s eyes. It’s so bloody saccharine sweet, it makes me want to puke, but at the same time, I want it. So damn bad.
Yes, I’m only nineteen. Yes, I’m aware that in today’s world, sometimes people don’t find forever love until they are, like, forty years old. But call me selfish. I just wish it were me, and I wish it were me right now.
“Serena?” Hawk calls out, noticing that I’m staring. “Are you going to join us, or are you going to keep your creepy voyeurism thing going on?”
I glare at my brother, wanting to go over there and smack him upside the head.
Instead, I decide to do the normal, if incredibly stupid, thing of doing as he asks.
“Reuben is joining us, too, I see,” Lavender says, my dog betraying me to go get the ear ruffles from her. I didn’t hate her or anything, but I guess my jealousy shines through in the strangest ways at times.
“Did Frankfurt State not knock your socks off or anything?” Hawk says as he offers me an apple from the fruit bowl the two brought with them.
“It was... well, it was a school. That’s what I can say about it. It’s the most boring school to ever go to.”
“That bad, huh?” he replies with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s not that it’s all that bad. I think they focus a bit too much on cows and horses and stuff. It’s way out West. And I wanted to focus more on companion animals like dogs, cats, birds, and the like.”
“We get horses and cows here sometimes.”
“Yeah, but it’s more of an oddity. Most of the cows can go to the ranches on the outskirts of town.”