Once a hero always a hero, but when Gunny Sergeant Nathan Bailey came home from Afghanistan, all he wanted to do was work in his father’s oil company. His father wanted him behind a desk, and doing interviews to build the company’s name. He was practically drooling at the byline. A Marine back from the war was a great promotional tool. Nathan wanted to be on the oil rig with the guys getting his hands dirty and oil under his fingernails. He wanted one more thing, the girl he loved for years but who wouldn’t give him the time of day. Her chocolate bronze skin, her smile, and the taste of her lips filled his dreams while he was deployed. But now he was home, she wouldn’t let him explain. She didn’t seem to care, but it didn’t stop him from loving her with every breath he took. Nathan was back. Evangeline Carter was there when the hometown boy came back from the war to a ticker tape parade. She heard he was working on the oil rigs, but no one knew the golden boy left her because he thought he was too good for the girl from the wrong wide of the tracks. Or so she thought. Every time she heard his name, her heart ached. But she would never let him see how hurt she was or how much she still loved him. Old wounds that never healed kept these two apart. How can they see past misunderstandings to find the love that is staring them right in the face?