Maude Harkey is resigned to a loveless life until a baby is born–and orphaned–at her boarding house home. She'll never be a wife...but she can still be a mother. Yet a boarding house is no place for a newborn. Enter Jonas MacLaren–a handsome, exasperating rancher with an offer too good to refuse.

Jonas can handle running a ranch–but handling his cantankerous mother is another matter. Maude matches his mother's stubbornness so she'll be a perfect live–in companion. But she's there for his mother, not for him. He'll just have to keep his wounded heart closed to her beauty, her humor, her warmth and strength–and her irresistibly adorable baby.