Book excerpt: In Low Branch, Texas, crime is low and community spirit is high. Denver Blanchett has been working as a bounty hunter for so long, he doesn’t know anything else. Two years after his partner and best friend, Hendricks Potter, decides to call it quits and find a woman to marry, Denver comes to the same conclusion. He has only known travel and outlaws. He wants the softness and peace of a woman by his side. So when he returns to Low Branch to visit Henry, he wonders if it is time to make the big change. Marti Williams lives a few hours from Low Branch in Southern Pines with her father and older sister. She has two more sisters who have married and moved away from home. As the last daughter without the prospect of marriage, Marti’s father is anxious for her to leave the nest. But can she find someone before her father runs out of patience? A frightening incident pushes Marti to make a move sooner than she thought and she runs to Low Branch fearful of her father. Denver finds a frightened woman, smaller and weaker than he’d expected from the letters he’d received from Marti when she comes to Low Branch to meet him. With the help of Denver’s old partner Henry and Henry’s wife, Vicky, he works to make Marti comfortable, ensuring she is safe as long as he’s around. Will Marti be able to build her confidence and leave fear behind forever? Will Denver be the security and protection she needs to uncover and maintain the bold, brave personality she’s been hiding all along? Only time will tell.