TumbleStar — Sandra Cox

Coop Malloy receives a telegram that his sister and brother-in-law have died and his ten-year-old niece is on her way to Texas to live with him. Still reeling from the loss of his sister, he receives another shock when his childhood friend Randa Lockhart steps off the stage with his niece Kallie. He's stunned to see that the little pigtailed nuisance that tagged after him, and his best friend, years ago has turned into a beautiful young woman. Randa and Kallie have barely settled in when Coop finds buffalo hunter Marvin Doolin beating the local blacksmith within an inch of his life for laming his horse. Coop steps in and when the buffalo hunter tries to kill him, shoots him. Now Doolin's four brothers are out to even the score. When they go after Randa, they cross the line. They're about to find out that there's nothing Coop won't do, and no one he won't track down to protect the two females that have burrowed hard and fast into his heart.