Matt Harte has his reasons for mistrusting city women. His wife hated rural life and finally ran off with another man, abandoning their six-month-old baby girl. He vowed never to give his heart to anyone else and he keeps his vow for ten years, until veterinarian and single mother Ellie Webster comes to Star Valley. Even though her daughter Dylan is his daughter's best friend, Matt is suspicious of her newfangled methods, including equine acupuncture, of all the damn-fool things. He won't let her near his valuable stock.
The girls have other plans for their parents, though. Dylan and Lucy think they were fated to be sisters so they scheme to bring their parents together, even though the last thing Ellie wants is a relationship with the taciturn rancher. They maneuver their parents into serving together on a school committee and Matt and Ellie develop a wary friendship. He begins to think he might have been wrong about her and even relents and allows her to care for his animals until some of his horses -- and animals she's treated belonging to neighboring ranchers -- become dangerously ill.
As they struggle to save the animals and to discover what -- or who -- is making them sick, Matt and Ellie begin to fall in love despite themselves. He learns to trusts her with his livestock, but can he trust her with his heart? [from author's web site]