Chloe Morgan is a thirty-three-year-old part-time waitress, small-time
horse trainer, and full-time thoroughly toughened Western woman living
in a corner of the dwindling canyonlands of Southern California. Though
surrounded by such memorable friends as Rich, her boss at the diner who
rules by intimidation; Kit, Rich's obese and talkative teenage daughter;
Gabe, a lusty veterinarian; and Wes, a classic cowboy with a heart of
gold, the only creatures Chloe allows herself to love with total abandon
and complete faith are Hannah, her German shepherd, and Absalom, her
beloved horse. That is, until a quirk in the weather and a sunrise
funeral service cause her to cross the path of Henry Oliver, a sedate
professor of folklore at the local junior college who, like Chloe, has
reasons for holding back. But once Hank steps inside Chloe's makeshift
cabin in the hills, Chloe realizes she must come to terms with her
losses and choose between the life of solitude she had always thought
was her fate and the love of a man who seems - at first - all wrong.