Reckless Heart — Barbara McMahon

Last chance

Molly Forrester's never held a job longer than six months. Now it's do or die time. If she can't find something she's good at, she'll have to admit defeat and return to her father's household and end up marrying some man more interested in her father's bank account than his only daughter. This time she has to make it work! Yet a cook and housekeeper at a cattle ranch? Even she begins to doubt she can stay the course. Still -- she's the seventh in six months. And it's her last chance.

Cynical and contemptuous

When his fiancée proves to be a gold-digging cheat, Josh Hart sends her packing and refuses to see any other woman in a different light. He'll leave romance to others. Falling for another woman is the last thing he'll do in this lifetime. He has a ranch to run. Unfortunately his long-time housekeeper left at the same time and over the last year six different women have quit or been fired. But to keep the cowboys on the ranch working, he needs a good cook -- and soon.

Nothing about Molly Forrester convinces him she's the right one, but he has no other alternatives at the moment. She can stay -- but just until he finds a woman of fifty who can cook and clean and stay out of his way. At least that's the plan at the start.