After taking the rap for a crime he didn't commit, Jake Chandler swore he'd seen the last of his unforgiving Texas hometown. Until family business brings him back...face-to-face with his past in River Bluff. Face-to-face with Rachel Diamonte.

Not only did Rachel break his heart, she was the lone witness whose so-called evidence fifteen years earlier had branded him a "barn burner."

And now the former homecoming queen--a single mother who needs help--has the nerve to ask him for a job. It could be Jake's chance to make her pay for what she did.... So why does he find himself compelled to protect her and her little girl?