Xan Stryker lit my heart on fire and then walked away as my entire world was engulfed in flame. I rose from those ashes into a woman who will protect what's hers at any cost.
He was hot, troubled, and forbidden—the trifecta of poor teenage decisions that left me standing at the edge of a river about to lose everything at sixteen.
Ten years later I'm back in Raston, British Columbia with my daughter and find myself face to face with everything I've worked so hard to put behind me.
I thought I'd be ready to face Xan with my chin high and shoulders back, but the second I see him all of the feelings I ran from come rushing back in.
But something else has followed us to Raston, and it might be a fight I can't win on my own.
Briggs Marchand has always been my weakness, my punishment. The one who is forever etched in my past, my present, and now my future.
All I want is to pass my psych eval and get back on my crew. Fighting wildfires is my life, not working construction, and babysitting my five siblings.
But since the Creston Ridge Fire what used to light me up now fills my days with darkness and my nights with memories.
That is until Briggs shows up in town with a nine-year-old daughter and uproots everything I've fought so hard to bury.
But Millie isn't the only thing Briggs brought home with her, and not much time passes between me finding out I have a family and having to fight to protect them.