Part of the Marietta Montana books- many sub series by many authors. They will nearly always involve other characters that appear elsewhere, but there are so many that is is probably impossible to try to read them in any sort of order. I'd treat them all as stand alones for the most part.

Kendall has been in love with her brother's best friend for as long as she can remember. But he abruptly left town years ago, standing her up for their first date. And he hasn't returned since.
Brent has also been in love with Kendall- but he left for her. He didn't want to trap her in Montana. She had bigger dreams. Did he make the right decision?

This story has the problem that many novellas have- it wasn't long enough to be fully developed. This had fully developed characters- who basically never spent any time together. They were apart for one reason or another for the entire book. So there wasn't any chemistry between them.

The upside is that the characters were developed well. They had background, reasons for their feelings and behaviors, and it made sense.

Sorry I was not able to read you book but it went to archive before I could get to it. Sorry once again.