Everything, that is, except a wife. An impromptu ad placed in the local mercantile brings Maggie Malone into his life--and a whole lot more than he bargained for. Before the ink on their marriage certificate dries, the feisty new bride has managed to add a foundling girl and a young boy to the "family." Maggie has no reason to trust men. But Crane promises to give her a home in the west. She’ll take a chance with him if for no other reason than to escape her present situation. But she will not tolerate any sort of injustice which lands her in one situation after another. Through it all, Crane remains true. Is this enough reason to trust him with her heart? This is a re-release. This title was originally published by Heartsong Books in 2001.

    Why today? she wondered. Why was her memory tarrying on that young cowhand from five years ago? ]Well]now, a deep, masculine voice said from behind her, if it ain't Miss Dusty Britches! Dusty felt the color drain from her face]felt the blood seem to drain from the rest of her body and puddle in her feet. She felt dizzy and nauseated all at once. ]There was only one person on the whole of the earth who ever called her Dusty Britches, and that was the cowboy who gave her the nickname in the first place. ...Dusty slowly turned around to see standing before her a man whose eyes were those belonging to a boy she'd once known--a boy who had grown into a man. Angelina Hunter was seriously minded...and it was a good thing. Her fathers ranch needed a woman who could endure the strenuous work of ranch life. Since her mothers death, Angelina had been that woman. She had no time for frivolity; no time for a less severe side of life. Not when there was so much to be done--hired hands to feed, a widower father to care for and an often ridiculously light-hearted younger sister to worry about. No. Angelina Hunter had no time for the things most young women her age enjoyed. And yet, Angelina had not always been so hardened. There had been a time when she boasted a fun, flirtatious nature even more delightful than her sister Beccas--a time when her imagination soared with adventurous, romantic dreams. But that all ended years before at the hand of one man. Her heart turned to stone]safely becoming void of any emotion save impatience and indifference. Until the day her dreamsreturned, the day that the very maker of her broken heart rode back into her life. As the dust settled from the cattle drive that brought him back, would Angelinas heart be softened? Would she learn to hope again? Would her long-lost dreams become a blessed reality?

    None of the nearby men meet her expectations, so she decides to advertise for a husband in newspapers back East. After all, she figures, men find wives that way. In Philadelphia, Gabe Hunters has spent his life buried in books, believing every question can be answered from the printed page - especially of the Bible. When he sees Lena's advertisement for a husband and father, he senses God pulling him to a place he's never before seen and work he has never done. Lena is confident that God doesn't make mistakes - but Gabe isn't at all what she expected. How can she ever learn to love this man?

    She finds a lighted cabin but doesn't know who she is or why she was running.