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Annabelle—Belle to her friends—returns to small town Mercy Ridge feeling like a failure. She’d left with such high hopes―a teaching job, marriage, children and a life in the big city. But here she is, back in Mercy Ridge, living with her folks, jobless, her fiancé long gone, and embarrassed to face her friends after telling them all she’d never be back.
Single parent Gavin Levine and his emotionally troubled young daughter, Gabby, travel from Seattle for a long, end-of-summer weekend visit to the Saddle Up dude ranch. Gabby becomes attached to a horse named Smokey, and the dude ranch owner’s friend, Belle. Could be, Gavin has too. Problem is, when they return home, Belle and the horse are clear across the state.
When the school year begins, Gabby just cries in class, Gavin doesn’t know what to do and Belle still doesn’t have a teaching job. How can she possibly help them from Mercy Ridge?