It took two seconds for Joe and June to realize they didn't like each other much after he pulled her, against her will, and his better judgment, from a snow filled vintage nineteen eighty-three Chevy truck mangled off the side of an ice-packed road along Wyoming's state route forty-one. Joe didn't have time to be a hero. He had a ranch to run, one of Wyoming's oldest and largest, that had troubles of its own. That's where he and his daddy were heading, to take care of one of those troubles, when June's truck came into sight.
June had her own problems and didn't believe in heroes, since she'd never met one. Having lost her job, and her place, all she had in her sight was to leave Wyoming and the ranching way of life as soon as she could escape. There was nothing the two of them could do to persuade the patriarch, Joe's daddy, Carlton, sitting in the truck beside him, that taking June home to recuperate at Nine Post Ranch was a bad idea. With no place left to go, and no way to get there, June climbed into Joe's big, blue dually and into his life.
What they didn't know, and were later unwilling to admit, was that each of them was exactly what the other one needed. It was also what the ranch needed. Carlton could have called it from day one. Stubborn as they both were, they were a perfect fit. It was love built out of the right place at the right time.
