Abandoned by the man she loved more than life itself . . . Cheated out of true love, Fanny Morgan spent years on the frontier hankering after a man she believes walked away from her. When he rides into Water Springs one cool, early spring day, she turns her back on him. She is simply unwilling to face the man again, and consequently her fears. Mac Conners loves Fanny from afar. He needs to talk to her, but how can he when she's always waving a gun in his direction? A wedding in the small town brings back the heartache of losing her. Now, more than ever, he needs Fanny to hear his words. Don't women who use a shotgun to scare off a man need a bit of luvin'? However, reuniting with a woman aiming a gun is just about impossible. Or is it? Will Fanny ever forgive the man she once loved? Excerpt: He wasn't lying. Fanny wore a sky blue gown with ruffles at the hem and a pair of soft leather shoes. Guilt ate away at his insides. When they had been younger, he'd promised her a life filled with every luxury of which she could conceive, yet none of that had come to pass. If only he hadn't left her, if only he'd taken her along despite the hardships in his life, wouldn't the preceding years have turned out differently? They would have had a passel of children, and their grandkids would surround them in this moment. Now, there was nothing but animosity between them, and he had little idea why she didn't at least speak to him. If she relented, the past was gone, never to be regained, but the future might still hold promise. His heart contracted with the pain of nostalgia. Fanny's salt-and pepper hair flowed down her back. She'd foregone the usual small cap on her head. He suddenly had an itch to run his fingers through the strands, as he had twenty years ago, but with his hands held up in the air, he could only dream of touching her. Time, along with the ravages of emotional pain, had created an unbridgeable distance between them, one he had desperately tried to close but Fanny refused to budge an inch. Apparently she had a killing grudge, of which she couldn't let go. Her features remained unrelentingly stubborn. Anger flared in her deep sapphire eyes, the gaze he still loved so much. "I've been here the last few hours, and you're seeing me for the first time?" His breath stalled. Dared he tell her he hadn't been able to keep his eyes off her? That she was all he could think about, especially when she was so near? Although his heart broke again, he dredged up a smile. "I'm only telling the truth." "You're trying to butter me up. It won't work," she said in a terse, unfriendly tone. The gun pointed directly at his aching heart. He knew with a certainty that if she had a mind to shoot, she'd hit dead center.