Honky Tonk Moon
(2026)(The fourth book in the Cowboy Christmas at Crescent Moon Ranch series)
A novel by Tess Thompson
He was born to leave. She was built to stay.
Rhett Lawson left his hometown, his first love, and his whole past behind. They just caught up with him.
Nobody expected much from the neglected kid with a dead mother and a drunk father — except his best friend Jack, Jack’s mama Carol, and Holly, the girl he’d loved from the time he was six years old. Their love, and the Stonehaven Boys and Girls Club, gave Rhett the confidence and the courage to dream big.
But here’s the thing about Rhett Lawson: the dream was never only his own. The first time he heard Jack Wilder sing, a scrappy kid became certain of one thing — his best friend was going to be a star, and Rhett was going to be the one to make it happen. Nobody believed it but the two of them. Rhett believed it enough to build a whole life around it: valedictorian, a scholarship, a business degree, and one homemade demo tape mailed to a singing show without asking. He was right. He’s been right ever since — manager to country music’s biggest act, always moving, never once looking back.
Looking back cost too much. Looking back meant Holly.
Holly Stone stayed. She came from a good family that raised her to believe you bloom where you’re planted and you leave a place better than you found it — so she poured herself into Stonehaven, into the very club that raised them, fighting to keep its doors open for the next generation of kids like Rhett. But the town is drowning in things she can’t fix, the money never comes, and everyone she grew up with has gone off and caught their dreams while she stayed behind and slowly ran out of hope. She’s tired. She’s broke. And lately she’s started to wonder if staying was ever anything but stubbornness.
Then a monthlong wedding at Crescent Moon Ranch throws them back together — the boy who ran and the girl who stayed, under Christmas lights, twenty years of history crackling between them. The chemistry never died. Neither did the reason they fell apart.
Because Rhett is everything Holly believes in — proof a kid from that club can become something. He just became it by leaving. And Holly is the one thing Rhett could never let himself want — because wanting her means going home, and home nearly killed him once.
Second chances don''t come with second guarantees.
And this time, choosing her means choosing the one place he swore he’d never go back to.
A closed-door second-chance romance. First love, a hometown reunion, and the boy who left coming home to the girl who never stopped believing in him.
Each book stands alone, but together the five tell the story of one unforgettable Montana Christmas.
Genre: Romance
Rhett Lawson left his hometown, his first love, and his whole past behind. They just caught up with him.
Nobody expected much from the neglected kid with a dead mother and a drunk father — except his best friend Jack, Jack’s mama Carol, and Holly, the girl he’d loved from the time he was six years old. Their love, and the Stonehaven Boys and Girls Club, gave Rhett the confidence and the courage to dream big.
But here’s the thing about Rhett Lawson: the dream was never only his own. The first time he heard Jack Wilder sing, a scrappy kid became certain of one thing — his best friend was going to be a star, and Rhett was going to be the one to make it happen. Nobody believed it but the two of them. Rhett believed it enough to build a whole life around it: valedictorian, a scholarship, a business degree, and one homemade demo tape mailed to a singing show without asking. He was right. He’s been right ever since — manager to country music’s biggest act, always moving, never once looking back.
Looking back cost too much. Looking back meant Holly.
Holly Stone stayed. She came from a good family that raised her to believe you bloom where you’re planted and you leave a place better than you found it — so she poured herself into Stonehaven, into the very club that raised them, fighting to keep its doors open for the next generation of kids like Rhett. But the town is drowning in things she can’t fix, the money never comes, and everyone she grew up with has gone off and caught their dreams while she stayed behind and slowly ran out of hope. She’s tired. She’s broke. And lately she’s started to wonder if staying was ever anything but stubbornness.
Then a monthlong wedding at Crescent Moon Ranch throws them back together — the boy who ran and the girl who stayed, under Christmas lights, twenty years of history crackling between them. The chemistry never died. Neither did the reason they fell apart.
Because Rhett is everything Holly believes in — proof a kid from that club can become something. He just became it by leaving. And Holly is the one thing Rhett could never let himself want — because wanting her means going home, and home nearly killed him once.
Second chances don''t come with second guarantees.
And this time, choosing her means choosing the one place he swore he’d never go back to.
A closed-door second-chance romance. First love, a hometown reunion, and the boy who left coming home to the girl who never stopped believing in him.
Each book stands alone, but together the five tell the story of one unforgettable Montana Christmas.
Genre: Romance