Men are optional. That was the credo Emma Chandler's suffragette aunts taught her and why she started a successful women's colony in Harper's Station, Texas. But when an unknown assailant tries repeatedly to drive the women out, Emma is forced to admit they might need a man after all. One who can fight. And there is only one she trusts enough to ask. Malachi Shaw has finally earned the respect he's always craved by becoming an explosives expert for the railroad. Yet when Emma's telegram arrives, he leaves his job behind and rushes to Harper's Station to repay the girl who once saved his life. Only she's not a girl any longer. She's a woman with a mind of her own and a smile that makes a man imagine a future he doesn't deserve. As the danger intensifies, old feelings grow and deepen, but Emma and Mal will need more than love to survive. 2016.