title: Rough Stock
author: West, Dahlia
description: Welcome to Star Valley, a beautiful yet brutal landscape nestled at the foot of the Grand Tetons, where the Barlows have lived off the land for more than one hundred years. They've fallen on hard times, though, and their survival is in doubt. Bankruptcy looms as dark as the storm clouds that are gathering. All five Barlow sons have gathered at the Snake River Ranch in a last ditch effort to preserve their family's legacy. As it was a hundred years ago, the mountains will decide their fate. The last place on Earth ex-barrel racer Rowan Archer wants to be is back in these foothills, where a Barlow broke her heart. But her family's fallen on hard times as well, and hard times breed hard choices. She wants to run away, back to Cheyenne, back to safety, but she can't, and it wouldn't do any good anyway. No matter how far she gets, she's got a daily reminder of her painful past with soulful brown eyes, a gap-toothed grin, and questions about how her daddy got "lost." Rowan is determined to protect her daughter from the heartache she suffered and she'll hold off the entire Barlow family with a rifle and a pack of vicious guard dogs if she has to. No Barlow will set foot on her family's ranch, not cheating Court who abandoned her years ago, not even his soft-spoken older brother Seth who comes to plead his wild younger brother's case. But Rowan's heart is as hard as the mountains that shelter them all and she vows that she'll never make the same mistake again.