The Bartender

In 1880s Tombstone, one sprawling ranch family is about to change — one bride at a time.

In a family of six lively sisters, Nutmeg Archer has always felt like the one nobody quite notices — least of all Sam Allen, the man she's been quietly in love with for the better part of a year.

Sam left a wealthy New York family behind for a fresh start in Tombstone, where he's built a quiet life as a bartender at the Occidental. He's good at his job and good at keeping secrets — especially the one he's been telling his high-society mother about what he does for a living. When she announces an unexpected visit, Sam needs a wife. Fast.

So when he places an advertisement for a bride, Meg does something completely unlike her: she answers it. He's expecting a stranger off the stagecoach. He has no idea the woman willing to marry him has been right in front of him all along.

Between hasty lessons in everything a bartender's wife is apparently supposed to know and a secret she's terrified he'll discover too soon, Meg steps into a marriage built on a misunderstanding — and a hope she hardly dares to name.

Meanwhile, Sam's mother is on her way west — and she has opinions about everything, including the Archer family patriarch who can't quite stop noticing her.

The Bartender is the third book in the Archer Family Ranch saga, a sweet historical romance about unrequited love, second chances, and finally being seen by the one person who matters most — for readers who love wholesome frontier romance and big-family sagas.