Helluva Engineer Series by Shirley Penick

The Kipling family has returned for a Christmas celebration.Brenda Stratton is shocked and, in truth, a little appalled that she and her roommate have been invited by their mentors to spend Winter break at a cattle ranch in the mountains of Colorado. Why would a family they don’t know invite them to spend Christmas with them? People just don’t do that, at least not in her experience... moreThe Kipling family has returned for a Christmas celebration.Brenda Stratton is shocked and, in truth, a little appalled that she and her roommate have been invited by their mentors to spend Winter break at a cattle ranch in the mountains of Colorado. Why would a family they don’t know invite them to spend Christmas with them? People just don’t do that, at least not in her experience.Thomas Blackhawk has been asked by his employer to escort, and work with, a bunch of engineers coming in for three weeks to see if they can discover what is causing the contamination of a stream in the northern pasture. They’ve only got a few months to get the problem cleaned up before the spring thaw.Brenda and Thomas take one look at each other and the heat roars. She’s too young for him and she’s only on the ranch for a few weeks. They need to ignore the flair of attraction and lust, if they know what’s good for them.Apparently they do not care what’s good for them. less

Tracy Langley is back on the Rockin’ K ranch to work with the mine reclamation company chosen to clean up the gold mine that is contaminating the ranch. She’s excited for several reasons, first she has a well-paying job, second that well-paying job will give her a perfect thesis project, third the Kipling family had been so nice to her over Christmas break that she loved every single one of them, and last but not least she was so excited to see Lloyd again... moreTracy Langley is back on the Rockin’ K ranch to work with the mine reclamation company chosen to clean up the gold mine that is contaminating the ranch. She’s excited for several reasons, first she has a well-paying job, second that well-paying job will give her a perfect thesis project, third the Kipling family had been so nice to her over Christmas break that she loved every single one of them, and last but not least she was so excited to see Lloyd again.Tracy and Lloyd became fast friends during the three weeks they had hunted for the cause of the contamination. If her heart yearned for more than friendship, there was no way she was going to let that ruin everything. Tracy knew for a fact that if she let anyone know her desires, they would quickly shatter, it had happened all her life.Lloyd Martin was more than thrilled to find out Tracy was part of the mine reclamation crew coming to clean up the old mine they’d found over Christmas. Tracy was so beautiful and so sweet natured, he longed to move their friendship into something more. But he was just a dyslexic ranch hand and she was a brilliant engineering student. He knew he had no chance with her, so he would keep being her friend and that would have to be enough.But trouble is afoot and Lloyd and Tracy will have to depend on each other to survive. less