When John Rankin's wife Annie dies, leaving him with two children to raise, he's not quite sure how he can do that and run a working cattle ranch, too. Annie's domain was home and hearth, and her dying put a hole in his day-to-day rancher lifestyle—far beyond the one she left in his heart. But his heart is only one of his problems when ten-year-old Callie rebels. Missing her mom and unsure how her life is unfolding, Callie pushes back at every turn and John doesn't know how to help her. Then his friend, Buck McGinnis, introduces him to Abby Cooper. Buck thinks John should seek the counsel of a woman for advice dealing with a moody pre-teen female. Suddenly, life becomes even more complicated. The Parker Ranches, Inc. series launches with this short novella, The Rancher's Second Chance, establishing the patriarch of the family, John Rankin, and his second chance at love and healing his family. \\\\ The Parker Ranches, Inc. series is a contemporary western romance series written by award-winning and bestselling romance author Maddie James. Linked by strong family relationships, these stories take place in multiple ranch settings across Montana, South Dakota, Texas, and Kentucky. The Parker and Rankin families—Montana ranchers for generations—anchor the series and provide the foundation for stories to come. As families grow, forming new ranch partnerships, you'll also meet the South Dakota MacKay and the Texas/Kentucky Remington families. Parker Ranches, Inc. books are first and foremost romance stories with happily-ever-after endings. Some are sweet, most are steamy, and a few are erotic. These novels and novellas always feature cowboy heroes and the women who love them—often with complicated relationships and external challenges that require time and attention to sort out. Welcome to Rankin's Rock Creek Ranch.

Parker wonders how much his stepmother, Abby, has influenced his father’s final wishes. Although Abby has been a part of his life for years, her goals for the ranch are different from he wants to keep it a working cattle ranch; she wants to convert it to a dude ranch. All Parker wants is to continue his way of life—running the Montana ranch until the day he dies, just like his father. The last thing he expects the day of his father’s funeral is for life to throw him another curveball—a red-headed, no-nonsense, curveball named Reba Morris. Having recently relocated to Montana, Rebekah (Reba) Morris decides to do the neighborly thing and help out at the Rankin home when everyone gathers after John Rankin’s funeral. With her late husband’s passing several months earlier on her mind, she knows how difficult it can be handling the small things, so she hopes the Rankins will be appreciative of her neighborly efforts. What Reba doesn’t expect, however, is a glimpse into a cool and aloof—albeit sexy—Montana rancher’s personal life. A glimpse that both intrigues and stops her in her tracks. She came to Montana to heal and focus on the next phase of her life. The last thing she wants is to fall in love.

Navy SEAL Ethan MacKay returns to Sweet Grass Ranch to recuperate from an injury suffered on a mission, and eventually help manage the South Dakota family ranch with his identical twin brother, Evan. But he's been gone too long, and he's not the man who left the ranch over a dozen years ago. Not by a long shot. His body broken, and hopefully not his mind, he prays what they say is true—that cowboy runs deep in your blood—because this black sheep cowboy could sure use something familiar to hang his hat on. But being back home at Sweet Grass is almost more of a challenge than heading up a special ops mission in Libya, especially when something familiar turns out to be the major challenge—his ex-wife, Brandley Mendoza. Brandley and Ethan's marriage quickly unraveled when he headed into SEAL training, and by the time of his first deployment, their relationship was fatally severed. Still, she keeps in close contact with the MacKays and considers them family. Hired by Ethan's brother to review the ranch's accounting books after their father's death, Brandley soon discovers Evan has an ulterior motive. Why he thinks she is the person to help Ethan get his head back on straight, she doesn't know, especially when she's dealing with problems of her own—namely, her ex-husband, who is seeking full custody of their daughter. But she risks coming down from her Black Hills safe haven to find out—only to realize that her heart is still vulnerable, and that Ethan isn't the cowboy she fell in love with when they were kids. Can Brandley tease out the cowboy in Ethan's black sheep heart and rediscover the love they once shared? Can she resolve the issues of her own shaky past, to let herself trust again? Or are they both too far gone to even try?

Leaving Noah is a heartwarming tale of love, loss, second chances, and the power of the written word. When a rodeo accident leaves Rock Creek Ranch shorthanded, Connie MacKay travels from South Dakota to Montana to visit her daughter and help with the neighboring ranch’s cattle roundup. Raised on a ranch and comfortable in the saddle, she is determined to help. After decades of working ranches throughout the northwest, Noah Parker heads home to Rock Creek to stay—maybe. That all depends on the reception he gets from family. When he arrives, the last person he expects to see there is Connie. Several months earlier at Sarah MacKay’s wedding, Noah and Connie shared a clandestine night together. Neither have seen nor spoken to the other since. It’s been a little over a year since Connie’s husband’s death, and no matter how attracted she is to the rough stock cowboy, she can’t let herself get swept away by Noah’s charm and old-fashioned cowboy ethics. Figuring out the next chapter of her life is her priority—and one she must do alone. Noah has baggage of his own he’s not sure he can get past, let alone heap on top of hers. He has known love, and lost love, and doesn’t want to live out the rest of his days alone. He loves her, but following Connie to South Dakota is not the answer, so he tries another tack—old fashioned love letters designed to share his story, and perhaps woo her heart.