Blurb:
My heart never stood a chance when this Grumpy Texas Ranger walked in.
A fierce storm rages as I tidy up the church. A man named Theo bursts in, demanding to see my father. Heart pounding, I try to stay calm for the sake of my daughter.
Jericho, a Texas Ranger, arrives, ready to arrest Theo. But I intervene, seeing something in Theo’s eyes and offer him a meal instead. From that moment, Jericho and I form an unexpected bond.
Jericho’s gruff exterior starts to crack as he watches me. In the days that follow our paths cross often and laughter and stolen glances become the norm.
Then the unthinkable happens. Theo kidnaps me to lure my father to Mexico. Jericho, now my anchor, is relentless in his quest to save me.
If he can't find me in time, I'll lose more than just my life—I'll lose the chance at a future with the man who's captured my heart.
Story Summary:
Beatrice is the daughter of the only preacher in small town Texas. She works and spends most of her time in the church, helping with the kid’s programs, as well as the funding for the church’s many missionary trips. While she now lives a small-town life there, she once ran off to the big city where she married a man older than her and divorced him a few years later. Beatrice had a daughter from that marriage, making her a single mom in a very judgmental small town.
A man comes into her father’s church one night, inebriated and talking about how her father owed him money. Beatrice couldn’t imagine that was true, but she wanted to help him. Police were called over his actions. By the time they got there, Beatrice had heated the man up some food and he quickly calmed down. She refused to press charges, even when Jericho, the handsome Texas Ranger strongly advised her to.
Jericho is immediately smitten with the preacher’s daughter and asks her out. He falls for the young single mom and after one date, Jericho is ready to get serious. It wasn’t a feeling he’d ever had before, but nothing seemed to come easy and a relationship with Beatrice was one of those things.
Theo is found to be a criminal and through misunderstandings, Beatrice will believe that her father is part of it. She loses faith in her dad, but Jericho helps her to see that nothing is as clear as she would like. When trying to get to the bottom of her father’s involvement, Beatrice stumbles across something she shouldn’t see. When Beatrice goes back to her small town, she is followed and picked up by Theo. She is used to bait her father in. Her dad really is innocent, and Beatrice finds out too late. Danger surrounds her and only Jericho with his two friends, Marcus and George, will be able to save her.
The two will finally confess their love to each other and get married in a surprise wedding. A year later, Beatrice has had a baby and they’ve moved to Mexico to coordinate their church’s nonprofit.
Characters:
Jericho: Texas Ranger, 6 foot 5, muscular and former military. Green eyes with a hint of a dimple on his chin when he smiles. Aloof to most that meet him, but instantly melts when it comes to Beatrice.
Beatrice: Preacher’s daughter who spends most of her time doing the children activities with the church. She used to have big dreams of moving to the city and becoming a singer, but after a failed marriage, she ran home and took up a small life with her daughter. She is too pretty for her own good, drawing in attention that she doesn’t want, even in the small town of Collins, Texas. Red headed, fair skin, freckles, blue eyes and has a young daughter that is about seven.
Tropes
- Small Town Romance
- Forced Proximity
- Single Mom
- Opposites Attract
- Grumpy / Sunshine
- Body Guard
- Damsel in distress
