PREORDER Steal and Starlight - Sagebrush Cowboys #9 - Signed Paperback

My best friend, my boss’s son, and the straight boy I’ve loved since the second grade.

I’ve been in love with Westley Gilderoy for as long as I can remember.

He’s my best friend. His daddy owns the ranch I work on. And he’s straight.

So I take what I can get: lunch breaks in his truck, my head on his thigh, my favorite chips traded for his sad little baby carrots.

It’s enough. It has to be.

Because I’m leaving Sagebrush, and nobody knows it yet.

Then West dumps his girlfriend and takes me camping. The next morning, I wake up wrapped in his arms in a bed way too small for two grown cowboys.

Now he’s looking at me like he’s never really seen me before.

His daddy has noticed too.

And loving West isn’t the only secret I’ve been keeping.

The other one could get me arrested…

Tropes You Can Expect:

Best Friends to Lovers
Pining Since the Fifth Grade
Rancher’s Son x Ranch Hand
He Thought He Was Straight
Only One Bed
Disapproving Daddy
Meddling Aunt Dolly
Will Trade Chips for Baby Carrots
Small Town Secrets
High Heat
Steal and Starlight is a sweet, spicy contemporary MM cowboy romance written in first person with alternating POVs. This is book nine and the final book in the Sagebrush Cowboys series.

Excerpt from Chapter One: Rhett
“Do you want my carrots, Buttercup?”
I looked over at Westley, sitting in the driver’s seat of his truck. He was holding a small sandwich bag filled with baby carrots, a grimace on his face like he’d just smelled something terrible.
“You pack your own lunch, West,” I sighed, taking the bag from him. “Why even put them in there if you hate them that much?”
“I don’t know,” he sighed, pulling off his black cowboy hat and placing it on the dashboard. “Mornin’ me thinks I should be healthier. And lunchtime me thinks mornin’ me should shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I pulled out my little bag of kettle cooked chips and tossed them to him. “You’re an idiot.”
“You’re givin’ me your chips?”
I looked at the chips, then back at him. “Looks like it.”
“Aww, thanks Buttercup,” he grinned, those bright white teeth shining as his silver eyes crinkled at the corners.
God, I loved those eyes. I worshiped them. They were bright and silver, just like starlight, and they made me feel things I’d never be able to explain. I’d do anything to make Westley smile, even if it meant giving up my favorite chips in exchange for his sad little carrots.
The truth was, I was in love with Westley Gilderoy. Had been since the second grade. He was my best friend in the entire world and the love of my life. But there was only one problem.
Westley was straight. He always had been. And I’d learned how to live with it. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t love him in my own way. As much as I’d love to be fucking in the back of his truck out at the far edge of the ranch his daddy owned, that just wasn’t going to happen. So, for now, I’d settle for being his best friend.
And I hoped, when the time came for me to finally leave Sagebrush, he’d forgive me for going.
“I’m not giving you my Oreo’s though,” I said, pulling my lunch box toward me. “Those are mine.”
“Aww man…” he grumbled. “I didn’t pack any dessert…”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Mornin’ you is an asshole.”
“Tell me about it.”
I pulled out my sandwich and started to eat, Westley doing the same. We’d done this every day since the second grade. Back then we hung out on the playground together and ate our lunches. But ever since I’d been working as a hand at his daddy’s ranch, we spent our lunches in Westley’s truck, music on, AC cranked, and our hats sitting on the dash. We joked, we sang along to the music, and we let ourselves unwind a bit. We started work at six in the morning, so we needed it.
But my favorite part came when the food was gone. We’d both pull out our phones, turn the music down, and I usually ended up lying crossways in the truck. Sometimes my feet were in West’s lap. Sometimes I rested the back of my head on his thigh. Today was one of the latter, and I loved every minute of it.
I never felt so relaxed as that quiet half hour in his truck, the heat of him pressed against me. It wasn’t sexual, just physical contact between two men with no ulterior motives. The other ranch hands thought it was the weirdest thing in the world. They made fun of me for it constantly, but they left West alone because he was the ranch owner’s son. But I didn’t care what they said. West and I had been close like this since before we were teenagers, before anyone could tell us it was wrong for two guys to be physically close to one another beyond a handshake.
It was the thing I was going to miss most about Sagebrush. That and probably Aunt Dolly.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, pulling me from my thoughts. I ignored it at first, content to stay right where I was with my head resting against Westley’s thigh, his leg warm beneath me. But it buzzed again. And again.
“You gonna get that?” Westley asked, his voice rumbling through his chest.
I groaned and fished the phone out, squinting at the screen. Three messages from Dale, the ranch foreman.
Dale: Cattle ready for tagging. Bring West to the north pasture when lunch is done.
I let my arm fall back down across my stomach. “Dale’s got the herd ready. We’re supposed to head out to the north pasture.”
“Already?” Westley’s fingers absently traced patterns on my shoulder. It was a habit he didn’t even realize he did anymore. “It’s not even one o’clock yet.”
“He said when lunch is done.” I turned my head to look up at him. “So... now, I guess.”
Westley’s jaw tightened slightly, and I watched as he stared out the windshield at the dusty ranch beyond. He didn’t want to move any more than I did. These quiet moments were sacred to both of us, even if he didn’t know exactly why they mattered so much to me.
“Five more minutes,” he said finally, his hand stilling on my shoulder.
I didn’t argue. I just closed my eyes and tried to commit everything to memory, the smell of his cologne mixed with sweat and leather, the feeling of his leg beneath my head, the faint sound of the radio playing some country tune I didn’t quite recognize. Five minutes wasn’t much, but I’d take what I could get.