It begins with a television show in 1996...

Lance Denton knows what he wants, and it isn't his co-star Maggie Smiley. She's too timid, too nice, too innocent—too everything. She sees past his exterior and into his heart. Maggie expects him to be good, and he only knows bad. He tells himself this, and yet he can't stay away from her. Her eyes, her heart, her spirit. He falls for her, and then he keeps falling.

It ends with a knock on the door in 2010...

Maggie Smiley has spent the last decade pretending a piece of her childhood never happened, namely the part that involved Lance Denton. When she receives an invitation in the mail to a fundraiser, she decides to stop hiding—from her past, from herself, and ultimately, from Lance. He makes this easy when he shows up on her doorstep, his blue, blue eyes promising more than she wants to see.