Catherine DeVault never imagined her search for stability would bring her to the raw heart of Wyoming. At twenty-two, already dismissed as a spinster back in Massachusetts, she placed a husband ad and hoped for a fresh start. But fate cut cruelly widowed within a year and carrying a child, she’s left to survive grief and hardship on her own.
Clayton Johnson is the last man she should trust. The son of a wealthy rancher, he’s known for whiskey, cards, and reckless charm not responsibility. Yet when he meets Catherine, fragile but unyielding, something in him stirs. Her quiet resolve challenges the easy life he’s always known, pulling him toward a future he never thought possible.
On land where survival demands loyalty and grit, both must face the truth: healing runs deeper than scars, and love takes more than desire. But can Catherine risk her battered heart on a man still shadowed by his past?