Sinners and Saints

Life has a funny way of turning upside down when you least expect it. For Natalie Huntington, life, with all its twists and turns, brought her to buy a house away from the city lights of her hometown, Plymouth, Pennsylvania. Moving into her small farmhouse, sitting on five acres entirely encompassed by the massive thirty-thousand-acre S. R. Ranch, Natalie finally feels like her mental health is about to improve. Besides, the forty-five-minute drive to the town she ran from is a far cry from the sparsely wooded planes and timber covered mountains around her. The judgmental hell of her past seems like a distant memory, and distant is where she wants it. After all, Natalie wants to start a new life of peace where she can leave behind everything in her past.
Nevertheless, when Natalie meets Joel, the guy next door, desires begin to surface that she tries to keep locked down. Besides, getting involved with someone isn't something she's expecting or even hoping for. She plans to simply live a quiet life alone, away from everything that drove her from town. However, her thoughts of the man only grow stronger as she gets to know him, and with Joel showing he has those same feelings, Natalie knows it's only a matter of time. Regardless, like anything as wild as the S. R. Ranch, there are demons those here fight to keep buried. Can Joel and those who work the ranch keep the secrets this land has held for generations, or will the ghosts of the past creep up and haunt them? Yet, in it all, will a new and blooming love prevail over the harsh reality of the past?

J. R. Stocker lives in northern Oklahoma.