Hearts of strangers

the long version

"Best friends forever TJ and Peaches escape their tormented lives when they leave the bayous of Louisiana. Traveling by steamboat, stagecoach and covered wagon, they make their way to Gold Hill Colorado embraced by the strange and wonderful Irish/Italian Bologna family. Gio and Maureen Bologna take in the two misfits and add them to their other nine children. Neither TJ nor Peaches had ever felt so loved while in the bosom of the happy family. The goldfields of the majestic Rocky Mountains are challenging but a good place to hide if you are trying to keep a secret. Just when they think they're safe some thousand miles away from their disastrous lives in Louisiana the big world becomes very, very small. One day the unimaginable happens when two of Peaches' evil brothers appear on the door step of the Bologna's Blue Bird Inn. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned when Peaches tries to protect TJ and the Bologna family from her wily, depraved brothers. True love blooms from the ashes in the heat of it all. Peaches and Danny, the oldest son the Bologna family, find they cannot resist each other no matter the circumstances. Their married life together is a bold declaration of the true hard working American settlers of the 1800's. Finally, TJ's fanciful desires are brought to fulfillment when he finds his way to Boston."--Back cover.