Don't Trust the Cowboy

by Sandy Appleyard

Overview

A black sheep. A runaway. The American dream. And an old friend that reappears from thin air...bringing Billy’s past with him...setting his future with Piper to a grinding halt.
The stain on my secondhand blouse taunts me as I drive to Billy Barnes’s ranch. He hasn’t called me for an interview, despite my numerous messages. I’ve been away at school long enough that I’ve been removed from this small town. Word is that Billy Barnes went away, too, to the military. Came back a different man, not fit for a woman. Doesn’t matter, since my only interest is work. He’s put off by me, but I don’t give up. Next thing I know, he’s following me like some lunatic, until he learns my secret, and then we’re both in a heap of trouble. He’s not the only one with nightmares. He’s not the only one living a nightmare, either. But then he looks at me with something in his eyes that I’ve never seen before. When I learn that it’s love it’s too late.
***
My brother Cassidy points out Piper Charlton’s resume from a stack on my table. But I grumble, as he shares points about her, and the fact that she’s the last thing I need. When she shows up unannounced, I’m not impressed. The second trip is plain ballsy, but I’m too exhausted to fight, and I end up doing two things I’ll later regret. Her brains, her drive, and her heart are what open my eyes to things I would have never cared about before in a million years. She’s more intuitive than what’s good for her, and she finds out a certain something about me that I’ve never told a soul. I never meant for Piper to be a victim. And I’ll be damned if she ends up that way. That’s why I have to stop it before it starts. I just hope that I don’t break her heart in the process...or my own heart, for that matter.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940167718067
Publisher:	Sandy Appleyard
Publication date:	02/03/2025
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	303 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Some have said that if you see me on the street (usually with a book in hand or a laptop fired up), I appear a cold, hard-fisted person. However, once we’ve spoken for five minutes or less, you’ll have laughed at least once. That is, provided you appreciate sarcastic, self-deprecating wit.

My first short story was penned in middle school and I was hooked ever since.

I graduated with honours from Humber College and began working as an Administrative Coordinator for a large, multinational corporation shortly afterward. Quickly learning that the corporate world, despite the love I had for my job, is a slow killer of creativity, I chose to quit during maternity leave in 2006.

Difficulty thinking outside the box soon evaporated when I received something that didn’t come in one: my first child. While at home with the baby my imaginative energy got the better of me and my first memoir was written. It had been a dream of mine to write about my late father, who passed away from alcoholism in 1992, and it took me two years to compose a fifty-page manuscript, but I did it.

After my second daughter was born in 2008 I had more fuel to write, and felt it necessary to voice the challenges and inherent gifts I acquired during my struggles with Scoliosis. Hence, my second memoir was born. The words flowed out of me with such ease I shocked myself.

My love for words grew with each book I read and every word I wrote. I soon realized I had no more material to write non-fiction, which led me to take a stab at fiction. The next two books were such a revelation: it became more and more clear what my true calling was. The rest, as they say, is history!