When Eve moves to Cornwall for a teaching job she never expects to gain the ire of her new neighbour, Phoenix. He’s the local carpenter but he’s also a notorious recluse, and Eve’s attempt at being neighbourly doesn’t go down very well. After a disastrous first interaction, Eve decides it’s best to avoid Phoenix going forward. But when her new work colleagues invite her out for Friday night drinks, she suffers an anxiety attack in the middle of a crowded pub. To her shock and dismay her grumpy neighbour comes to her rescue and offers to walk her home. After witnessing her panicking and fleeing the pub, Phoenix realises that Eve isn’t at all what he thought she was. He’s spent years fending off the unwanted advances of several local women and he believed Eve was just like them. Nothing could be further from the truth. This woman is shy, timid and extremely vulnerable. He has no idea what happened in her past to make her this way. All he knows is that when he’s around her he wants to protect her, and he finds himself drawn to her quiet ways and understated beauty. Amid the lush, dreamy backdrop of a small coastal town, Phoenix and Eve are two lonely souls who find connection over their troubled pasts. Will the ghosts of those pasts return to hinder their happiness? Or will true love prevail? An earlier version of this story was originally published with the title 'Phoenix' under L.H. Cosway's pen name Raine Anthony.