Home is Where Love Waits

What was a young cowboy supposed to do with a beautiful woman, two frightened children-and a farm under attack?After nearly two years in the Colorado goldfields, Clay Forester is finally headed home to Dodge City. He and his partner struck it rich, sold their mine for a fortune, and Clay is ready to return to the ranch he partly owns just outside of town.But his journey takes an unexpected turn when he spots black smoke rising from a farm below.Clay arrives to find a farmhouse burning, fences torn down, livestock stolen-and two men lying dead in the yard. Before he can make sense of the destruction, a beautiful young woman steps into view and points a double-barreled shotgun straight at him.Ella Jones has every reason not to trust a stranger.Only moments earlier, armed raiders descended on the farm where she lives with her brother-in-law, Willey, and his two small children. The attackers killed the hired hand and Grandpa, shot Willey in the leg, stole their cattle and pigs, and left Ella terrified that they might return. Her only thought was to hide her young niece and nephew in the storm cellar and protect them at any cost.Then Clay Forester rides into the middle of the devastation.When Ella emerges from the cellar with the children clinging to her, she discovers the stranger she threatened has already taken charge. He has covered the dead, tended to Willey’s wound, and begun doing what he can to put the shattered farm back in order.Clay intended to ride on to Dodge City.Instead, he finds himself unable to abandon a wounded man, two frightened children, and one fiercely determined young woman who is doing everything she can to hold her family together.But the men who attacked the farm may not be finished.And the longer Clay stays, the harder it becomes to tell whether he’s protecting Ella and the children because it’s the honorable thing to do-or because he’s beginning to imagine a future he never expected to find.Sometimes a man can strike it rich in more ways than one.