Book excerpt: True love is what all people desire to their very core. It takes many shapes and forms and can be missed at the slightest misstep. Fate always plays a role in the direction it wants to drive young hearts, whether it be together or apart. Luke Weston must deal with fate's evil hand as it drives him far from where he needs to be and away from true love. Being a young cowboy on the harsh West Texas landscape can be a most challenging way of life. This is especially true if this way of life is not what you desire. Luke struggles with what he has been told he must do to help his small family and what his heart believes it really wants. A sleek set of forty-five pistols is all that he has to relieve the stress of everyday life on the small ranch. His blazing speed is finely tuned each day at his makeshift targets as the days melt into one another. There he can imagine his life on the open range and adventures to the faraway mountains of the Rockies. He believes that there he can find great riches and a lifestyle that will bring peace of mind. The call of many ladies, his family needs, and the wilds of the rugged mountains pull at his soul as he matures into a handsome young cowboy. Many other issues arise as love tries to find him while he tries to find himself. Fate takes him to places he doesn't want to be and far from the true love that waits with open arms. In the end, a strange type of love must try to conquer fate's evil hand, a hand that it tries to deal at the table of life in the West Texas badlands.