Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just struck a fragile, tentative truce in their co-parenting dynamics when she runs into her first love, Atlas, all over again. Having been apart for almost two years, she is ecstatic when time is finally on their side, and she has him all to herself, and immediately, she says yes when Atlas asks her out on a date.

Lily has never had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She has changed her situation a lot from the rural town she was raised in; she went to college, moved to Boston and started her own business. And when she meets the incredibly handsome neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is strong-minded, headstrong even, perhaps a little bit cocky. He’s also sensitive, smart, and has a complete soft spot for Lily. And the fact that he looks good in scrubs sure doesn’t hurt. And Lily doesn’t know how to stop thinking about him. But Ryle’s reflexive hostility to relationships is troubling. As Lily becomes a barely tolerated exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help wondering what turned him into a dating cynic.

Five years in prison for a tragic mistake Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna has burned are now all but impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s world wants to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.