If You Were Mine — Colleen Faulkner

Hired gunman Noah Ericson isn't Mercy Atkins' first choice of boarders, but in Nowhere, Nevada, hotel patrons are hard to come by. Left to care for her young son and her elderly father when her husband Haman disappears, Mercy is struggling to keep the hotel's sagging roof over their heads. A paying customer -- even one with a loaded weapon and a troubled past -- won't be turned away. And now that Haman's relatives are determined to stake a claim on the hotel, Mercy cannot deny that Noah's presence at her supper table is a much welcome comfort...

Noah gave his loyalty to the Union Army, but he might as well have given his life. He returned from the war a hero, only to find his beloved wife and daughter viciously murdered. Now grief and guilt are his only companions. Yet Noah doesn't have much time to brood -- especially when life in Nowhere is complicated by suspicious attacks on the bank stagecoach he's been hired to guard...and by his growing attraction to Mercy. But when he discovers that she is hiding a dark secret that can destroy their chances for happiness, Noah must find a way to unlock Mercy's heart -- and show her that a brighter dawn awaits them both...