When Dr. Paris DeMont lost her beloved Gabriella to the mindless tragedy of Nine Eleven, she lost more than her partner of eight years. She lost her will to love. A successful cardiologist to New York City's elite, Paris now lives a sterile emotionless existence on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Paris finds out that even when one tries to give up on life, life has a way of interfering and forcing you to live it. When Paris returns to Banyon, Missouri, to oversee the repairs to the aging Victorian farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother, the protective barrier she has wrapped around her heart is tested to the limit. Childhood friend Sloan McKinley still carries a torch for Paris . . . A torch that even after twenty-five years still burns brightly and threatens to consume them both if only Paris will let it. Contains mature themes.