In Dire Straits by Terry Odell

When there’s trouble, he has your back. For Tim Halloran, Army Ranger turned Colorado cowboy, a simple life on a cattle ranch with no strings is his idea of perfection. Maybe he’ll have a ranch of his own someday. Meanwhile, ranching lets him forget his haunting wartime experiences as an army sniper, and being the ranch clown is his coping mechanism. Bad jokes and a love ’em and leave ’em lifestyle make his world turn. But meeting Rebecca Morgan soon has his world spinning in another direction. To Tim, she’s a mystery. She must have been absent the day she was scheduled to receive her sense of humor, and when she ignores his overtures, Tim is determined to break through her serious exterior. Little does he know, the secrets she’s hiding will turn his life upside down. What will he give up to keep her safe—even if it turns out to be Rebecca?

Rebecca Morgan abandoned her failed marriage and needs to land a high-paying job to help cover her five-year-old nephew’s skyrocketing medical expenses. Her farming background left her without marketable job skills, but she’s confident once she completes a culinary school course, she’ll find a job as a private chef for the rich and famous circles in the big city—as in New York City. She’s accepted into a cooking program, one she’s sure will solve her problems. Dismayed when the vocational cooking school is connected to a cattle ranch of all things, but needing her certificate, she’s willing to overlook the location. Then she meets Tim Halloran, one of the cowboys. A man is the last thing she’s looking for, and an impoverished cowboy is well below the last item on her list. But when her ex comes back into her life, threatening her family, Rebecca will stop at nothing to thwart his plans, even if it means a reluctant partnership with a cowboy—a wisecracking man who seems to be working his way into her heart. Things escalate, and she’s faced with a choice. Will she accept her ex’s demands for her nephew’s sake? Or will she find happiness with a jokester cowhand?