Shy spinster Jane Cowan prefers fictional men to the living, breathing variety. Her allergic reaction to unattached males never fails to leave her tongue-tied and red-faced. But when widower Stephen Hicks moves to town, Jane's minister father volunteers her to care for the man's two young children. The little ones tug on her heart, so Jane agrees, never expecting a friendship to develop with the children's father.

Stephen arrives in Albany, Texas, chasing a fresh start, fighting to keep his family intact, and running from a past that could cost him everything. He has reformed his ways, but his late wife's mother is determined to leverage his criminal history to gain custody of his children.

When the old life Stephen worked so hard to outrun rides into town, everything he has built threatens to crumble: his reputation, his freedom, and the future with Jane he is only beginning to hope might be his. Will she stand by him in danger and scandal or close the book on their fledgling love?

Bestselling and award-winning author Karen Witemeyer sweeps readers away in this forced-proximity, single-parent Western romance with a bookish heroine and a brooding cowboy hero.