CATHRYN McNEIL wants to believe in happily-ever-after, Jane Austen style. But a twice-divorced children's therapist whose heart is buried in a graveyard of loss is an unlikely heroine. Stuck in a small prairie town, she's resigned to her secluded life until she meets polo player Jack Stone at a funeral. They're drawn together by a mutual love of horses and the land, but his hot and cold behavior-and a family secret involving another woman-cause her to question if he can be the hero she seeks. The powerful weather and sweeping vistas of the northern plains and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains set the mood. The cycles of nature experienced by the characters mirror their own cycles of life, loyalty, and friendship as they come to terms with love and loss, and reinvent their own roles in the circle of life.