Her Rival Cowboy (EBOOK)

Born smack-dab in the middle of his more successful siblings, Benji Miller finds himself wondering where his place is on his family’s wealthy ranch. It’s hard to stand out when he has five brothers that just so happen to include the Leader, the Veteran, the Genius, and the Playboy. Benji’s only claim to fame is that he’s really good at fixing things.

But that talent comes to the forefront when Benji’s Ma asks him to help a neighbor in need. Neighbors who just so happen to own the rival Touhey Ranch.

Neighbors who also just so happen to have a beautiful spitfire of a daughter named Danielle—who seems to hate his guts for no good reason.

Danielle can’t figure out the handsome Benji. Usually people like to make fun of her for being a tomboy who just wants to care for the animals on the farm. She figures there must be something up with him showing all this interest in her.

After repeated attempts at trying to get Danielle to show a little kindness, she still treats Benji like he’s the worst person on earth. Now Benji must decide if he wants to look past her attitude to do the right thing, or let her sour disposition chase him off…

TROPES
✅ Enemies to Lovers Romance
✅ Neighbors
✅ Grumpy Cowgirl

Author’s Note:
Her Rival Cowboy is a sweet contemporary western romance novel (EBOOK) that is sure to sweep you off your feet! Brothers of Miller Ranch is a series of books that are about each of the wealthy but humble brothers of Miller Ranch finding true love! Each novel is a standalone eBook that can be enjoyed without having read the other books of the series. Download and enjoy!

After purchasing, this EBOOK will be delivered instantly via Bookfunnel email.

Dani shaded her eyes with her hand and recognition slid into place. She knew that face, although in a more notorious way than anything else, because dollars to donuts, she was looking at a Miller boy.

Which one, she wasn’t sure, because once you saw one muscle-bound, stunningly classic Miller boy, then you’d really seen them all. They were like someone had hit print five times on that family and just shot out one quintessential, handsome cowboy right after the other. They were the darlings of the town, even from middle school.

Dani wouldn’t have minded them being so beloved if it, in turn, didn’t make people seem to feel like the Touheys were in the wrong for daring to run their own ranch. It wasn’t like her family was stealing from them or anything, but many in the town seemed to act that way.

The Miller boy continued striding up to her, and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at whatever it was he wanted. He didn’t seem to catch it, however, because suddenly he was within socializing distance of her and offering his hand.

“Howdy there,” he said.

His voice was nice, as was his strong, chiseled jaw, and his wide cheekbones, and blue eyes. There was a thin but long scar on his chin that wrapped under onto his neck, but instead of distracting from his whole look, it just added to it.

And dang it, was that annoying.

“I’m Benjamin Miller. I assume you’re the Touhey girl?”

She looked him over. Part of her knew that she should be polite and see why he was around, but her mind couldn’t quite get there. His pleasant, open face just reminded her of how people treated her family like they were encroaching on Miller land when they were just trying their best to provide for themselves. It wasn’t like the Millers had a monopoly on ranching.

“You figured that out yourself, huh?” she said caustically.

The man looked surprised at her tone, which she was sure he was. Because everyone was always tripping over themselves to ingratiate to the Millers while no one had ever cared about how Dani thought or felt.

She felt her anger bubble as she recalled some of the things her classmates had teased her for. Gossiped about her. The man in front of her had probably either heard the rumors or added to them himself. No one had ever stood up for Dani back then, and that left her with little to no love for the man in front of her.

“Uh, yeah.” There was silence for a moment. “This is usually when you tell me your name.”

“Is it?” she asked, leaning against her shovel.

Goodness, what was he thinking in that ridiculously handsome head of his? He was basically a rich, gorgeous man who had the world handed to him, and she was a fat, dirty competitor who was digging a fence post because everything her family had been working towards had gone up in flames.

“If we’re going by what my Ma taught me, then yeah.”

“I see.” She took a long, long drink from her water bottle, never removing her eyes from him. “And you always do what your Ma says?”

He seemed utterly confused by her terse responses and honestly, she loved it. It felt like she was taking power back when she’d had so little of it lately. Or ever. There wasn’t exactly a lot of adventure or choices when she’d been focused most of her life on helping her family succeed.

“Well, historically, she does have some pretty solid advice.”

“I’m sure she does.”

He stood there awkwardly, seeming like he was trying to find the right words, before he sighed and gave her an uncertain look.

“I feel like you’re having a joke at my expense, ma’am.”

“Ma’am?” she countered. “We went to school together. You really don’t need to use honorifics with me.”

“We did?”

She nodded. “Well, I’m pretty certain we did. The eldest Miller boy was too far ahead of me, but the rest of you were all either right before or behind me.” She squinted. “And I never could tell you guys apart. So, which one are you?”

“My brothers and I look nothing alike.”

“Sure, you don’t.”

That seemed to irritate him, and he smirked a bit. She supposed she should maybe feel bad but had any of them ever stepped in and stopped people from teasing her? From making fun of the old used jeans she wore or her waistline? No. And if they weren’t actively stopping the bullying from their little gaggle of worshippers, then they were just adding to the issue. That’s the way it worked with bullying. There were no gray areas.

“Look, I’m just here to help your family—”

“And no one’s stopping you, are they?” she glanced over his shoulder to see the animals peeking over the hay in the back of his truck. Wow, she had to admit, he was pretty productive for just one day.


She felt a flash of guilt. She really shouldn’t antagonize someone who had obviously just spent the day helping her family, but it felt like her manners were taking a backseat to everything else. Anger, resentment, sorrow, shock, all of that was sitting in the front seat, driving her body while the rest of her mind tried to process everything that had happened that night.

But every time she tried to think about it, she just saw flames. Burning higher and higher, without mercy or restraint. Consuming everything that was important to her.

Shaking her head, she realized that the man had been talking to her again.

“Look,” she said, suddenly very tired of him, and the interaction, and the whole situation in general. She wished that she could just go to sleep and wake up when her brothers were happy and healthy, and she wasn’t surrounded by reminders of the trauma they’d barely survived. “I need to finish this pen. You should go drop off those animals before going back to that McMansion of yours and patting yourself on the back for helping out the poor folk down the way.”

“Did I ever do something to you, ma’am?”

The earnestness of his question surprised her, and she stopped short as she looked him over. It would probably be so easy to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he was pretty, and pretty people were always assumed to be good, weren’t they?

“I don’t know,” she replied before turning to dig more. “Did you?”

He let out a very dry snort, and she felt a bit of triumph at getting him to lose his perfect aw-shucks demeanor.

“You’re something else, you know that?” he said.

She stood up and affixed him with the flattest glare she could. “The same thing could be said about you.”

He seemed surprised at that, staring at her for several moments and seeming to try to think of what to say. But instead, he just turned on his heel and walked back toward his truck. Dani dismissed him from her mind as he went, letting him walk out of her thoughts as they settled back into their rhythm.

Shovel in the ground.

Step on the edge.

Fill with dirt.

Put in the pile.

Do it again.

Do it again.

Don’t think.

Don’t think.

Thinking always ended up hurting her, making the tears prick at the corner of her eyes.

Just dig.