The Long Ride Home ebook

For eleven years, Tavis Brannagh built his identity on being the one who never went down — not in the rodeo ring, not on the ranch, not for anyone. When his old knee injury finally buckles under him in the middle of the courtyard, he does what he's always done: brushes it off and gets back to work. His family isn't buying it anymore. Physiotherapist Briar Calloway has heard every version of Tavis's excuses before, mostly from herself. A former competitive barrel racer, she knows exactly what it costs to keep pushing through pain instead of facing it — and she's done watching stubborn cowboys wreck themselves rather than ask for help. She takes him on as a patient with one condition: he actually follows the plan. What starts as a professional standoff becomes something neither of them expected. Briar sees past the calm, unshakeable front Tavis has spent a decade perfecting, straight to the exhaustion underneath it. Tavis finds, for the first time since his career ended, someone who doesn't need him to be fine — just honest. Healing his knee turns out to be the easy part. Trusting someone with everything he's been carrying alone is harder. But as the Brannagh Ranch settles into another season and Briar becomes less like his physiotherapist and more like home, Tavis has to decide whether he's finally ready for the long ride back to himself — and toward the woman who never once asked him to pretend.