A Higher Standard

As one of Boston's most eligible bachelors, real estate developer Gideon West has the golden touch, both with the ladies-from Beacon Hill to Southie and all points in between-and every project he's helmed for Standard Development. Hungry for his next challenge, he's set his sights on the untapped potential in the rolling hills and tranquil farmland of the sleepy town of Mimosa, North Carolina. To confirm it's the idyllic perfection it appears to be, Gideon heads south, where he's enveloped in Southern hospitality by everyone and everything with the exception of two: Monty, a runaway horse, and Everest Kennedy, an emerald-eyed spitfire who can knock everything he's working toward right on its axis.

Everest's life in her hometown of Mimosa revolves around one thing-the equine rescue she's scrimped and saved for and struggled to get off the ground since college. After years of work, Second Chance Farms can finally stand on its own four hooves. What she needs now is the ability to expand her little slice of paradise by buying the hundred acres next door-that Gideon has under contract. There's no way she's going to let Gideon West upend everything she's worked for, regardless of the fact she appears to be the only one immune to the spell of the silver-tongued developer. But with each dimpled grin and blue-eyed glance, Everest can't deny her resistance to his charm is waning. If she isn't careful, Gideon might turn her carefully planned world upside down.

Even worse is that maybe - just maybe - she wants him to.