In the unforgiving Arizona Territory, wild and wanton Mattie McAlister desired only to be left alone so she could raise her half-breed son in peace. Then one day Gordon Halpern charged into her world and challenged it with an offer she couldn’t refuse.She had sworn she would never be afraid again. At least, of change. Of loss. Of death. Unless she was afraid of emotion. Love was something she didn’t know if she was courageous enough to risk. The wise knew that love meant all three at once: change of the self, loss of the self, death to the self. That supreme sacrifice. And Gordon Halpern was both her greatest hope and her greatest fear.