From USA Today bestselling author Willow Aster comes a heartfelt second-chance romance about a cowboy and a single mom wrangling their tragic past into hope for the future on a proud Wyoming ranch.

A car accident on prom night changes everything for eighteen-year-old Maverick Harrington. In a flash, he loses two best friends: one who dies in the crash, the other who carries the blame. Finding hate easier than grief, Maverick’s heart slowly hardens. Now twelve years later, he runs Harrington Ranch, bearing the family name on his shoulders and wearing the past like a brand on his heart.

Iris Sullivan didn’t have the sense to leave Ironwood, where loyalty is law. She’s raised her son in the same town that turned its back on her, surviving on stubborn resilience as a single mother. When a golden opportunity takes her back to Harrington Ranch, she comes face-to-face with the man who once said she was dead to him. But forced proximity has a way of weakening defenses.

As old secrets and new sparks ignite, Maverick starts to see the woman behind the whispers—and the twelve-year-old boy whose legacy he can’t ignore.

© 2026 by Willow Aster, all rights reserved.