The whole saloon went quiet at a standstill. The red-haired man stopped before he could reach the third step. Lana stumbled back, her fumble the only sound heard. Her hand quickly fell from its trap. She rubbed her wrist, slowly turning to see what had ensued. Her eye was even with the barrel of a revolver. Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked at the man behind the gun. All she could make out in her focus were the green eyes she had fallen into just hours prior. Doc. "Would you favor me in steppin' aside, my dear?" he spoke softly. --- Cover art by Yvan Quinet. Also published on AO3 under my account @/sister0fthemoon. Some dialogue and details used are taken from the movie Tombstone's script/screenplay by Kevin Jarre. I don't own any of these characters apart from the OC, and a few minor characters. This work is about the Doc Holliday from the movie, Tombstone and not the real and historical figure Doc Holliday, although details of his life are used for the purpose of the story.

"Look, Toni. Not everyone who comes into your life is there just to use you. Some people are there because they really do care about you" Erik's calmed voice only made her anger worse. "Why do you not trust anyone?" Toni lost it. She was tired of holding back. "You wanna know why I'm this way? You wanna know why I don't trust people?" Toni Curtis is the ranch owner of a horse ranch in the middle of Texas with enough land to comfortably house a small army and their families. Life on a ranch isn't easy by a long shot, especially when the boss hog is a woman, but it's all she has known. Horse rustling causes her to take drastic measures, along with her cowhands. Erik McBride has just started working with a woman that he doesn't get along with. But he needs the money to support his family back in Georgia. His job hangs in the balance already, and rustlers try to make things harder on everyone still. Push comes to shove and Erik can't believe what he's done when he accept the job of being the Boss Lady's Man. He annoys her. She confuses him. What could possibly go wrong?

Caission Beck hates the rodeo and everything that goes with it, including the guys. The Beck family tradition is that every generation a new rodeo star is born and everyone looks to Caission, but refuses and opts for making custom leather chaps. When she has a booth at the trade show in a big rodeo will rodeo become a bigger part of her life? Gunner Pate invites the adrenaline rush he gets every time the chute hate springs open letting the bull he mounts out. Rodeo is not a hobby for him, it's his life, but it is missing something big. A woman. After his rough break up he isn't sure he wants another relationship, but one special woman with hurt of her own could be just the one to change that.

Peyton Grimes doesn't have a good relationship with her father. When she was 5 years old he left her mother for some young and flashy flight attendant that he met on one of his business trips. She has not seen him since. Now, 12 years later, her mom has died. She has nowhere else to go, except to stay with her scumbag of a father and his new wife in Florida. Things happen in Florida that Peyton never would have expected....she begins helping her father on his ranch, making new friends, and refusing to fall in love. **ALL RIGHTS RESERVED** [This was my FIRST story to ever write and complete. It's not perfect, but it's mine.]

Having run away from a past she'd rather forget, Rylie Klintson lands herself a job as the first female worker on the McGrange Ranch. While the foreman seems to have his own ideas about how she should be spending her nights, she is given a bunk house to share with Dune O' Brandy, a quiet yet hardworking man. Over time, Rylie finds herself drawn more and more to her bunkmate, especially when she is given a blue roan to ride that he trained himself. But right out of the gate, it seems her past won't let go as she's plagued by dreams of attackers, murderers, and her helpless family and friends being killed before her eyes. The foreman's advances don't help any, each one bringing back more memories. Dune is the only one that can console her, and as the summer passes, they fight to control the nightmares, as well as staying out from under the foreman.

Loving Ellie Ellie Sinclair Matthews has loved Blake Weston as far back as she can remember. He had always been her best friend and protector, like a big brother. But somehow, she wasn't sure exactly when, her feelings of adoration turned into love. Not the kind of love between a brother and sister, but the kind of love a woman feels for a man. Ellie knew deep down Blake was the only man she would ever love. All she had to do was to get him to see her as a woman not as a little sister. All of that changed when she and her cousin were abducted from their train by a ruthless band of outlaws as the two of them were on their way back to Red Valley. Blake Weston was a US Marshall and most days he loved every minute of it. He and his partner John were working undercover in Angel Cooper's gang. The last person he expected to see on the train the Cooper gang was robbing was his childhood best friend, Ellie Matthews. The day continued to go south when Angel himself decided to take Ellie and another girl with them for "entertainment." How was he going to get them out safely? His work wasn't finished but he couldn't risk Ellie's life. And if he could save her from the gang, would be able to save her from him, or did he really want to?

This is the second book but it can be read independently. Disowned by his family and trapped into a loveless marriage Levi Matthews thought his life is over. The one bright spot is his beautiful daughter. Then his wife dies suddenly freeing him, or so he thought. Now he's a single father fighting to keep his daughter and the only way is to remarry. Deciding that he wants a marriage in name only he places an ad for a mail order bride. Hope Saunders is from a well to do family in Savannah Georgia that has fallen on hard times due to her father's gambling. She learns that she is to be married off to pay for her father's debts. Her fiance is a cold heartless man that has already buried two healthy wives and she has no intentions of being the third. Hope decides to take control of her own fate and answers an ad for a mail order bride. But is she making the right decision? She knows nothing of the man placing the ad except that he is a widower with a little girl and he lives out west. At least she was making her own decisions and being a romantic at heart she could only hope that she would find love with this stranger.

Cole Weston had lost everything he'd ever loved and for ten long years he's wandered. First as a tracker then as a bounty hunter until a small town calls to him and he decides it's time to stop running from his past. Grace Jennings and her daughter are hiding from a killer who will stop at nothing to find her. Will Cole be able to listen to his heart and take a chance on love again? Will Grace ever be able to trust another man with the truth?

Meet Harley. A country girl born and raised in the back roads of Tennessee. Her life was easy, until one night her dad didn't come home. Mama drove around where he worked, hollering for him. When he returns, he has changed in ways she could ever imagine. He disappears for days at a time, taking all of their money with him. Harley searches the town for a way to make money. A fellow rodeo champion shows her the ways of barrel racing. Already knowing how to ride a horse, she quickly adjusted to the ways of the rodeo life. Becoming one of the best in Nashville, she is asked to travel the United States. The only problem: her parents. What will she do? Give up her life's work, or go against her parents wishes?

April Tuner a four time national barrel racing champion and Nick Smith a four time bull riding champion had married and had a beautiful daughter named May. May being just like her mother she is wild at heart. She loves the rodeo and loves barrel racing just like mother. But one of the few things that are different between the two is May has her eyes not only on the big champion belt buckle but also a certain roper named Jack Hatch. Is rodeo love starting all over again or is May just in store for a heart break?