Rivals. I was the rich kid from St. Thomas Academy, while Taryn attended Bessemer Bay High, the local public school. We had one perfect night. And because I never made a promise I couldn’t keep, I offered her nothing more. Five years passed. Thanks to family duty, I’d spent those years as a Marine in Afghanistan, the handler of a bomb sniffing dog. One thought carried me through those seeing Taryn again. Our reunion was unintentional. Discovering she had a daughter was unexpected. Loving her would mean I finally had the family I’d always wanted. Keeping her would require a bigger transformation than bootcamp. Losing her wasn’t an option.