A child, a puppy and sweet romance… Sick and alone with her three-year-old daughter at Christmastime, Belle needs help. When her neighbor’s brother gets involved, she welcomes the soft-spoken, good-looker into her world. Rescuing her kidnapped daughter isn’t part of the deal but any man willing to babysit his sister’s menagerie of pets and cares that much about a stranger’s baby is a guy she wants to get to know much better. Jesse has only loved one woman in his life. Years ago, she left him with a broken heart and a lot of poignant memories. No one can replace her. No other woman has ever come close. So why does this loving mom sneak into his head continuously? And why can’t he shake her loose? One spoilt girl in his life, a sister who expects him to live on a pedestal, is enough for any man.

A young mother’s eight-year-old secret… Anne Pichette is an eighteen-year-old exchange student who goes to live in Texas for a year. Rose Walsh, her host mother, treats her like a daughter and Anne believes her life is perfect. Rose’s teasing, devilishly handsome son, Clint, on whom Anne develops a crush, has a lot to do with this belief. One night, Anne shares her tender passion with Clint, but sadly, he’s too inebriated to remember. A week later, she returns to Paris devastated—and pregnant. Anne fully intends to tell him about her condition except her plans are deterred due to a letter arriving announcing his impending marriage to a pregnant woman he loves. Eight years later, Rose appears in Paris to beg Anne to come back to Texas to help her through her final days of cancer. Unable to refuse her dear old friend, Anne accepts. Now she’ll have to divulge that her boy, Max, is Clint’s son. Clint Walsh might be hardened and embittered but he knows he has a good reason for acting this way. After all, his wife, the slutty woman he believed was his true love, leaves him with their daughter and never looks back. So how’s a man supposed to handle that kind of treachery? Especially after they’d shared one beautiful night of lovemaking he’s never been able to forget. Or, due to his state of intoxication—clearly remember.