Amy O'Brien vows to do anything in her power to keep a shady relative from obtaining custody of her newly orphaned niece and nephew--and control of the sizable trust fund left to them. Enter Wyoming rancher Reese Cavanaugh, the children's only other relative, with an offer Amy can't refuse: If he and Amy were married to one another they would almost certainly be granted custody of the children. Aware that this may be the only way to protect her niece and nephew, Amy accepts Reese's offer - after making sure he understands that this marriage will be strictly a business arrangement. What neither of them counted on in this seemingly foolproof plan was falling in love.

A midwesterner by birth, Charlene Bowen now resides in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband, Chuck, a retired Air Force Sergeant. Although Charlene felt from the time she was small that she was destined to become a writer, she didn't seriously pursue a writing career until the youngest of her four children was almost grown. "Before that, I'd always felt a little like that proverbial 'square peg,'" she says, "and then all at once, I knew this was what I'd been waiting to do all my life."