Lanie — Cynthia Woolf

U.S. Marshal Ben Carleton is new to the job. He had no plans to hunt killers and thieves, but his life took an abrupt turn when his wife was murdered and he was left caring for his infant son. Alone. Ben knows nothing about caring for children, but he does know one thing...tracking a killer. And that's what he's determined to do when he arrives at Carter Monroe's Colorado ranch, the family that took him in when he was a boy. His intention is to leave his son in their capable hands until he does what needs to be done. Until he eliminates the evil man who killed his innocent wife.Lanie Monroe hasn't seen Ben since she was a child chasing frogs in the creek and seeing him again is a shock to her system. The teenage boy she idolized has grown into a hardened, and heartless man. Not much else has changed. Her parents, Carter and Samantha, are older, but Lanie still chases frogs, and cattle, shoots snakes and runs the ranch like it's her own. Trouble is, a woman isn't allowed to inherit, and her father is determined to see her married. Ben's arrival is her father's answer to all of life's problems. He wants Lanie to take off her pants and spurs and settle down into domestic bliss with a Marshal who is still grieving his dead wife, hunting a killer, and has so much pain in his eyes she can barely stand to look at him.But fate has never been on Lanie's side. To save the ranch she loves, marriage is the only option. Even as she says, 'I do', she wonders if the gorgeous cowboy vowing to love her forever will do nothing but break her heart.