Cowgirl at Heart

Cowgirl at Heart is the second volume in the “McCord Sisters Romance” series of Christian romance novels by writer Christine Lynxwiler. A 2010 follow-up to The Reluctant Cowgirl, which centered upon Crystal McCord, this book focuses on Crystal’s adopted sister, Elyse, who has a natural talent for training dogs.

The book opens with Elyse investigating a case of animal abuse. When the resident of the house, a former felon named Zeke Moser, threatens her with a gun, she is saved through the intervention of another man, Andrew Stone. However, when they go to check on Zeke’s sister, Maxine, whom they find near death in the house, Zeke steals Elyse’s jeep and flees the scene. The McCord family is grateful to Andrew, who is apparently a traveling house painter, and hire him to paint the barn on their ranch, allowing him to connect his trailer to the ranch’s utilities.

Andrew is worried that Zeke still intends to attack Elyse and tries to keep watch. He does catch someone spying on the family, but this turns out to be Luis Reynolds, Elyse’s biological father and a con man. (When Elyse was eight, her parents got into a shootout with police, and Elyse’s mother was killed, while Luis was sentenced to several years in prison.) She makes Andrew promise not to reveal that they had seen Luis, although Andrew suspects a connection between him and Zeke. He calls his father, a Texas Ranger, and finds out that Zeke and Luis had, eight years before, been at the same prison in Arkansas.

As it turns out, Andrew has a backstory of his own: a former investigative journalist, he is on the hunt for the man who murdered his wife, Melanie, after which he remained a “person of interest” in the case despite his release by authorities. Andrew believes, on the basis of some jewelry that Zeke had pawned, that he was connected with Melanie’s murder, but Maxine has a stroke before he can question her about her brother.

On the way home from a 4-H meeting, Elyse finds a badly beaten Luis in a truck nearby, and he warns her about Zeke before falling unconscious. Andrew learns that Luis had served his entire sentence, rather than seek parole, in order to remain involved in a prison ministry, but Elyse is convinced that this is part of some con. However, as Elyse’s parents reveal, he had been in touch with them as soon as he left prison, hoping to be a part of her life at some point. Shortly before Thanksgiving Day, Luis shows up at the McCord ranch to apologize to Elyse and tell her that he had come to try to protect her because he had seen the news reports about Zeke attacking her.

On Christmas Day, after Andrew and Elyse, who are falling in love with each other, exchange presents, the sheriff drives up to the ranch and reveals that the gun Zeke had in his possession had been registered to Andrew’s late wife. Andrew acknowledges having been on the trail of his wife’s killer, leading Elyse to think that their burgeoning relationship was simply part of a long con. She refuses to see him, but she does go to Luis’s cabin near Newport (Jackson County) and somewhat reconciles with him.

Elyse goes to take Maxine’s dog back to her, but Zeke is there, along with Maxine’s nephew, Doug, who has moved to Shady Grove to take care of Maxine. Zeke makes Elyse call Andrew to try to lure him to the house, but her reference to tuna sandwiches (which he hates) makes him realize that it is a set-up. He manages to sneak into the house and take down Zeke, and he learns that Doug is the one who killed Melanie, having intended only to rob the house for enough money to buy drugs. When the sheriff shows up, Doug confesses to Melanie’s murder. Andrew later visits Luis in order to get Doug started on prison ministry, and the book ends with Andrew and Elyse confessing their love for each other.

A third installment in the series, Cowgirls Don’t Cry, about the youngest sister Kayleigh, who has a small role in this book, was initially announced by Barbour Publishing, but the release of the book was later canceled.

For additional information:
Lynxwiler, Christine. Cowgirl at Heart. Ulrichsville, OH: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 2010.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas