He's a ghost, back from the dead, and determined to claw back everything that should have been his—including me.

When I return home to my family's ranch as a freshly divorced single mom, I expect all the usual challenges. I'm ready for the furious teenager and steeled for the small town gossip mill. I'm even prepared to be back in the thick of Stockton drama. The kind that has me helping my brothers patch bullet wounds and rebuild fire-ravaged family businesses.

What I'm not prepared for is seeing my brother's best friend, the man who broke my heart years ago, back from the dead, and standing in the family kitchen laughing with my daughter.

Our daughter. Not that he would know.

He's nothing like I remember. The soft-spoken ranch hand my father took in like his own is a hardened cowboy, every bit as dangerous as my brothers and twice as charming. My traitorous heart even threatens to thaw when I see him standing at the end of the aisle, hat in hand, wearing a heart-stopping grin.

Unfortunately for him, I'm only walking down it to secure a legacy my family desperately needs. Because once my heart is broken, I never forget.

Any path to forgiveness would involve him crawling on his knees over broken glass. A challenge he apparently sees as a silver lining.

But my secret isn't the only one we uncover while we're digging up the past, and the threat that follows has us racing against time and facing impossible odds.

Odds he's determined to beat, come hell or high water.