Her father forbade the match — his daughter would not marry into a Spanish family. Five years later he is in his grave, and the man he sent away has ridden back into town.

Cecelia “Cece” Heyward has run her Colorado ranch alone since she buried her father last year. She is so worn down by grief and work that she'd nearly forgotten what it was to have friends, until a book club of sharp, warm-hearted women draws her back into the life of Buckhorn Gap, and a young widow and her silent little boy arrive on the ranch with nowhere else to go.

As she begins to become part of the community again, she discovers that her father left a debt she never understood, held quietly by a Denver concern she's never met. She asks questions, but has a hard time getting answers. Someone is patient. Someone is waiting. And the more she learns, the more it seems her ranch was never as safely hers as she believed.

The one man who might help is the last one she expected to see again. Antonio Montoya is no longer the earnest boy Peyton Heyward turned out of his parlor; five years in Denver have made him a formidable attorney, come home to defend his own family's land against a threat that is beginning to look a great deal like hers. They were in love once, before her father ruled that some things simply are not done. Now the man who ruled it is gone, and the only person left to say what Cece may want is Cece herself.

Book 3 in the Brides of Buckhorn Gap series — a sweet, slow-burn historical western romance of second chances, found family, and a love that was never wrong, only forbidden. Complete as a standalone, with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. Available for pre-order on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.