“I wish I knew how to take it away,” Sully says.
“Take what away?”
“All that hurt inside you.”
Despite the bad blood between their families, Bishop Sullivan and Porter Dixon spent their teen years sneaking off together and forgetting the rest of the world existed. Then Porter up and left without a word and Bishop spent the next 11 years wondering what happened. But now Porter is back on Sullivan Ranch angry at the world and looking for a job. Porter is determined to prove that he doesn’t need the Sullivans but his pull toward Bishop is hard to ignore. Will they be able to forget the past and have their second chance at love or will old secrets tear them apart once more?
“Careful, I’m gonna think you want me as much as I want you.”
“I shouldn’t want you, boss…” He hesitates only a moment before he says, “But I do.”
Right from the prologue, we’re thrown into the angst of this story. There was a lot of history and bad blood between the Sullivans and the Dixons, dating back generations. A history that led to Bishop leading a fortunate life on the ranch his family owns while Porter and his family fell on hard times. Despite all that, the boys made space in their world to be together and it was sad when Porter left without a word.
Naturally, things are rocky between them when Porter returns to town. Bishop is still hurt and confused about what happened all those years ago and Porter is upset at basically everything. But I enjoyed seeing them find their way back to one another. Time and space may have taken them down different paths but their hearts were always true. There was no way they could ignore a bond like theirs for too long.
They had a lot of external factors throwing up roadblocks for them, though. There were familial expectations, generations-old secrets, and volatile ranch hands standing in their way. A few things turned out how I thought they would and a few others surprised me. But it kept me flipping the pages to see what would happen.
“I’d spent my whole life building these walls around myself, protecting myself, making them unbreakable, yet somehow, you’d found your way inside. You could hurt me, Sully, and I’d never given that power to anyone else.”
In their softer moments, Bishop and Porter were so sweet together. Bishop was a great guy and I loved seeing him work his way through Porter’s walls. Porter had quite the journey. I thought a lot of his anger was justified but as the story progresses he realized he didn’t have to be angry about everything and maybe he was deserving of love and stability. It warmed my heart and I even got a little misty-eyed in the beautiful epilogue.
“I’ve always been wild at heart. Turns out, I only needed to find my way home.”
The Book Boyfriend Addict 