Their secret romance ended badly—with bitter words neither can take back. She’s disappeared to start over where scandal can’t touch her. He’s found her anyway, and this time, he’s not walking away—no matter what she’s hiding. KICK When Isabel Van Orr disappears after our family’s wine auction instead of flying to Italy, I volunteer to track her down. What I don’t tell anyone is that Isabel and I had a secret relationship that ended badly, and I’m the reason she’s running. When I find her working at a winery in the Russian River Valley, she begs me to leave. But the fear in her eyes tells me she’s hiding something bigger than embarrassment. So I make her a deal: let me stay and prove I’m not the man she thinks I am, and after she tells me the truth, I’ll walk away if that’s what she wants. The problem? The longer I stay, the more I realize leaving her is the last thing I’ll ever do. ISABEL I’ve spent years being “that pathetic woman” who publicly chased Snapper Avila, so when I fell into a secret relationship with his younger brother, Kick, I thought I’d finally found someone who saw the real me. Then I nearly sabotaged his family’s wine project out of jealousy, proved him right about my worst qualities, and we ended things badly. Weeks later, everything changed. Rather than face the humiliation and judgment waiting for me at home, I disappeared to a small town where no one knows my name. But Kick tracks me down, sees through my lies, and refuses to leave. Now, I’m faced with an impossible choice: keep running and protect myself from the scandal that will destroy what’s left of my reputation, or trust the man I love with the secret that could bind us together forever—or tear us apart when his family learns the truth.