A gentle Texan shows up on Marina's doorstep, and her dream of starting over in Tyler becomes a nightmare. He's the vice principal. Rumors about the fire in Tyler have led him directly to her teenage son. And her. Out to win the boy's trust, he loses his heart, instead, to the lovely divorcée.

Heiress Aileen Lynch has just lost her mother to cancer, but her spendthrift stepfather insists she must cancel his gambling debts by marrying his disreputable associate. Fleeing Ireland with the help of her mother’s lawyer, she lands in Boston to stay with friends and is attracted to one of their visitors. Doctor Samuel Walker is in town to attend a medical conference. When he meets the lovely young Irishwoman he is quite taken with her and, at his colleague's entreaty, marries her and takes her home to Texas with him to keep her safe. Sam rationalizes that he doesn’t need a wife but he does need a mother for his son. While Aileen strives to earn Sam’s affection, he vows never to risk Aileen’s safety or his heart—he’ll not father a child and watch Aileen die in childbirth as his first wife did. And falling in love is not in his plans.

Shrimpers who fish the shallow coastal waters of Texas fight a constant battle for survival—contending with shrimpers who fish the deeper gulf waters, competing with weekend sportsmen, wrangling with government regulations, and dodging environmentalists' incriminations. Add competition from the international market, an ominous threat frequently overlooked by bay fishermen, and the shrimpers; chances of winning—at least with their current lifestyle intact—are slim. In The Bay Shrimpers of Texas, Lee Maril explores the successes and failures of the shrimpers who prowl remote bays, rivers, and estuaries for their livelihoods. Through random sample surveys of fishermen, participant observation, and historical analysis, he examines the political, economic, and social realities confronting the shrimpers and their families. Legal and environmental constraints, price instability, work hazards and benefits (only one percent of the shrimpers surveyed had health insurance), rivalry with gulf and sport shrimpers, and conflict with Vietnamese refugees are all factors that affect the outlook for shrimping. Portraying the shrimpers' lives on land and water, Maril describes their boats, equipment, and various fishing strategies (both legal and illegal) used to survive in an increasingly competitive occupation. He gives an in-depth and personal look at an industry that in many ways has changed little over the last century and in others has haphazardly evolved as it enters into a ruthlessly competitive world marketplace. The prospects for bay fishing—a vital part of the cultural identity and tradition of many small coastal towns—are uncertain. By examining the past and clearing up misperceptions and myths, Maril provides valuable insight into not just the future survival or demise of one industry in a global economy, but the future of small business as a whole.