Ever since Wade Gray lost his ranch and his son, he’s had one mission: get both of them back. After a year, he has his son. Now it’s time to get the ranch. With all his careful planning, he realizes he might not make it back. He’s up against a ruthless enemy who’ll kill anyone who gets in his way. In order to secure his son’s future, he rushes to marry Millie Washington, the woman he rescued on the same night he and his family got his son back. Love doesn’t factor into the equation. Love didn’t factor into his first marriage, either. He married his first wife to rescue her from a life of prostitution and abuse, and the arrangement never led to love. So to him, marriage is a logical decision based on what can benefit both people. In this case, he can offer Millie a place to live, and she’ll be the mother to his son. It’s as simple as that. But marriage to Millie isn’t like what he had with his first wife. Millie isn’t weighed down by a harsh past. She has an innocent way of looking at the world that becomes a welcome relief after all he’s been through. In the rugged Wyoming Territory, she’s the only pleasant thing that exists. This poses a very difficult proposition for him. If he falls in love with her, it could get in the way of getting his ranch back. Feelings always get in the way of doing what’s necessary. And he can’t afford for anything to get in his way.

Richard Larson has secretly loved Amanda for years, but it wasn't until she had nowhere else to turn that he had the courage to propose a marriage of convenience. Now as they make their way to Omaha, Nebraska for a new life, he wonders if she might ever come to return his feelings. When Amanda married Richard Larson, it wasn’t for love. It was because he was rescuing her from a painful situation. When they married, they agreed to a marriage of convenience. She didn’t realize he secretly loved her until after the vows were exchanged. Now she doesn’t know how to act around him. And worse, a young man from her past is the one leading the wagon train to Omaha, and he has plans for them to run off to start a new life elsewhere.

What Boaz Grady wants more than anything else is to have his children living with him. But in order to get them back, he needs to marry a woman who’ll be their mother. Eva Connealy left Omaha, Nebraska to be a school teacher. While in Montana, her stagecoach is attacked, and the men decide to sell her. While the men in Lewistown post bids for her, Boaz makes a wager of his own and wins the right to marry her. Despite the shaky beginning, Boaz is sure she’ll adjust to her new life as his children’s mother. But she wants to be more than a mother. She also wants to be a wife and vows to figure out how to take their marriage of convenience into something much, much more.

When Mitch Grady goes to a saloon to take his wayward brother home, he finds that his brother’s horse isn’t the only thing being offered in a poker game. Heather Curtiss’ brother has bet her as well. Vowing an innocent woman won’t be forced to give up her virtue to a disreputable gambler, Mitch joins in the game of poker, and with luck, he wins and frees Heather. Heather sees this as her chance to get away from her brother and appeals to Mitch’s kindness to marry her, offering to help him care for two children and his ailing mother. He agrees and they start a life together. But Heather’s brother hasn’t gone away. And Mitch might find that being with her is going to take more than a poker game.

Sometimes the right person comes at the worst possible time… Having suffered through the horrors of the Civil War, ex-doctor Thayne Jackson believes he’s the worst possible candidate for marriage. He has chosen, instead, to live a quiet and peaceful life raising his orphaned niece. But when a beautiful young woman with a two-year-old boy shows up injured in his barn, everything changes. Abby Gray has one mission: to get Lloyd back to his father. She must not get distracted by the fact that Thayne is kind and honorable, and she must certainly not dwell on her growing attraction toward him. Once she’s healed, she has to leave. She can’t stay at this ranch and make a life with him and his niece. There’s no “ifs, ands, or buts” about it. Except there’s a ten-year-old matchmaker in their midst who is determined to get the two of them together. And she’ll come up with an assortment of creative ways to do it.

Jesse Palmer headed to Omaha with his expectant wife and his mother-in-law. When his wife dies in childbirth, his mother-in-law blames him. And worse, she refuses to let him take care of his son. In order to get his son back, he needs to marry someone–and fast. And who better than the one who makes the offer? Laura Rufus volunteers to marry Jesse so he can have his son, knowing full well he’s still mourning the loss of his first wife. The last thing she plans on is falling in love with him, but day by day, his tenderness toward his son makes her wish she hadn’t been so quick to propose a marriage of convenience. Will there ever be something more between them, or will she be stuck with the marriage agreement they made?

When Joe Otto accepted the job to lead a wagon train to California, the last thing he expected was to be asked to marry Mr. Heller’s daughter. Still pining over the one that got away, he’s not sure he has it in him to open his heart to another woman. Mr. Heller assures him the arrangement will only be temporary. Once Joe delivers her to her aunt and uncle in California, he can annul the marriage. Joe can use the money, and besides, it’s only a temporary arrangement. She won’t be his wife for the rest of his life. Reassured by this logic, he agrees to the marriage contract. Michelle Heller knows the only way she’s going on the wagon train is if she has a husband, so she readily accepts the deal her father makes with Joe. What she doesn’t expect, however, is that her new husband is the most attractive young man she’s ever seen. Over and over, she has to remind herself their marriage isn’t real. It’s only borne of necessity. But as the days pass on the trail, it’s harder to remember their marriage is only on paper, and it seems the two are at odds as to what they want this marriage to be. After Joe watched the woman of his dreams start a life with someone else, he vowed he would never open himself up to being hurt again. Can Michelle break through his wall, or will she have to annul the marriage once she reaches California?