A woman afraid to lose love again. A righteous man determined to fulfill his duty. When ruffians stir up trouble in Rocky River, will they find happiness or face sorrow anew?

After losing his fiancée over a decade ago, Ned Thorn became a lawman, driven to protect and serve. Now, after years spent dealing with petty grievances and dull family squabbles, a letter from an old friend draws him westward, to a frontier town on the edge of civilization. In Rocky River, he finds work aplenty, a lackadaisical sheriff, and a beautiful, entrancing widow who calls to his heart like no one before.

Ava Fisher runs the women’s boarding house in Rocky River. Since losing her husband six ago, she’s raised her daughter Trixie and run her business alone, leaving little time for matters of the heart. Her daughter yearns for a father, having never known her own Papa while Ava herself longs for love again after years of shepherding mail-order brides through her doors and into happy matrimony. When the handsome new deputy steps into her life, an instant attraction sparks between them.

But Ned Thorn swore to uphold and protect the law, putting his life on the line every day to protect the good people of Rocky River from criminals and lawlessness. And when scoundrels threaten the town, she knows Ned will step forward and discharge his duty, no matter what it costs.

Will Ava risk losing love again? Or will she let the handsome deputy walk into danger and out of her life forever?

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