The Foreman and the Lady by Kate Richards

Maggie McAfee has not returned to Honeysuckle Ranch since her parents died in an accident a few years before. She has a great job as a professor of obscure literature looking toward tenure at a big California university. Life is perfect. Well not perfect, but pretty good. She misses her brother and dreams of her high school sweetheart, but a woman can’t have everything. And what good was she to the ranch? She couldn’t even sit a horse. It would take a lot to get her home again. Like a terminally ill brother who has only days or weeks to live.

Will Kyle has also been far from the Fort Travis area for the past several years. His stepfather’s heavy handed takeover of his family property made being there too painful. But his current job as foreman for a large ranch in Oklahoma has ended suddenly and Baxter McAfee’s job offer comes at a great time. What could be better than working for his old buddy on the prettiest ranch, with the best reputation? And with Maggie never coming home, his heart is safe.

But fate has other plans, or maybe Baxter does. A collision of hearts in the face of impending grief will almost certainly end in disaster. No matter how much a dying man wishes for the two people he loves the most to realize what fools they’ve been.