Grace Baron had always been the good wife, in spite of a marriage based on a careless indiscretion, and sustained not by love, but by old-fashioned morality. She’d raised her daughter, bit her tongue, and silently lived with her guilt. Now that she’s a widow, she can’t help being glad for her sudden freedom. She’d never live her life like that again. Without a sense of control. Without deliberately making a choice about her future. And that future would never involve getting married again. Small town lawyer Howard Scott has buried two wives. His steadfast belief that it’s never too late to find true love keeps him open to whatever joy life has to offer. He doesn’t want another socialite wife. This time he wants a hometown girl. Someone stable, maybe a little naïve, but feisty enough to keep him on his toes. Someone like Grace Baron. Howard’s gentle, old-fashioned courting makes Grace feel alive again. Would marrying Howard be the trap Grace fears, or would it finally give her a kind of freedom she’d never imagined?

Schoolteacher Kelly Baron raised her child alone. Now that her daughter’s grown and married, Kelly can finally start her new life in North Carolina, responsible only for herself. She has just one more thing to do: help her mother. To do so, she must return to Heritage Springs, Kentucky, the place she’d fled years before. Back then she’d been nothing but a small-town girl from the wrong side of the tracks, hiding a secret that could have destroyed lives. Newly divorced lawyer Rob Scott seeks solace for his heartache in his small-town roots. Maybe being an incurable romantic isn’t smart for a lawyer who has to deal with hard facts. The last thing he’s looking for is a relationship. He’d made millions in Chicago, but in his heart he’s always kept a secret dream, a desire he’s never told anyone. Then he runs into Kelly, the girl who’d disappeared from his life years ago, leaving behind only hurt and unanswered questions. Kelly’s kept her secret all these years. But sometimes the only way to build a future is to face the past.

Devoted homemaker and mother C.B Lyons hadn’t known she was living a lie, right up until the moment when she caught her husband cheating. Betrayed and then divorced, with her dreams of a big, happy family smashed to pieces, C.B. takes her toddler son to Heritage Springs, Kentucky, to be near family. Typing manuscripts for a famous romance author seems like the perfect job until she discovers the hidden truth about the reserved, reclusive writer. Madison Mallory is a best-selling romance author with a secret. “She” is a “he.” The original Madison is actually in a nursing home. Her son, Jamie Madison, is determined she’ll have the best care possible. Even if that means quitting his job and taking up his mother’s pen name to keep the romance—and the money needed for her care—flowing. Writing about romance is one thing. Making it work in real life is harder for Jamie. C.B. has good reasons to distrust men, especially sexy ones with piercing blue eyes. When C.B.’s ex wants his family back, can the author and his assistant find a way to write their own happily-ever-after ending?