Still Life

Things to do: muck stalls, repair heater, clean blankets, break up sister's marriage.

Louisa Patch has her hands full, with a horse farm to manage and a special needs daughter to raise, but when her sister falls for a con man, the single mother cannot sit by doing nothing. She's been down that road herself, and puts into motion a plan to extract her sister from a thief who will prove far more clever than Louisa could ever imagine. Before long, her business starts to fail, the most influential horse owner in Bourbon County is treating her like a pariah, and the man she thought was about to propose doesn't seem to know she's alive.

Her only ally is the horse trainer who has been chasing her for years. To bring in Cecil is to accept his conditions, joining a race horse syndicate in league with a mysterious silent partner. The financial burden could send her into bankruptcy, at a time when her business is already suffering, while Cecil's romantic pursuit could doom her relationship with the farm's owner. And that affair isn't exactly smoking hot either.

A woman who wants to have it all, Louisa may end up with nothing if she cannot figure out a way to keep Cecil at arm's length, rope her lover back in, and expose her brother-in-law's crimes.