With his wild heart, Sawyer McKettrick isn't ready to settle down on the Triple M family ranch in Arizona, so he heads to Blue River, Texas, to seek a job as marshal. But in a blinding snowstorm he's greeted with a gunshot and collapses into the arms of a prim and proper lady in calico. The shirtless, bandaged stranger recuperating in teacher Piper St. James's room behind the schoolhouse says he's a McKettrick, but he looks like an outlaw. As they wait out the storm, the handsome loner has Piper remembering long-ago dreams of marriage and motherhood. But for how long is Sawyer willing to call Blue River home?