Lily Roberts meant everything to him The moment he'd set eyes on the pale, pretty child, Trace Dushane knew why he lived. To keep Lily from harm, Trace fled the Oklahoma prairie of his birth. To feed her, he sometimes went hungry. It was a hard life for a teenage boy, but Trace never forgot that Lily depended on him, trusted him to do what was right. Trace was still trying to do the right thing years later. Ignoring the beautiful woman Lily had become. Trying to convince her that she no longer needed him. But for Trace, the hardest part of all was facing a life that felt wrong-a life without Lily.

For weeks John Lonigan had been repairing Abby's farmhouse, male-bonding with her nephew and coaxing smiles from her shy little niece. John wasn't Abby's good friend or her lover, so why then had he proposed marriage? Abby didn't know. What she did know was that she needed help with her makeshift family and he needed to settle down, making marriage the practical answer. Original.