Pouring everything into her master's degree, Daphne Fielding needs a partnership to complete her ambitious project and Army Major Michael Knox reluctantly agrees. Both guard their hearts, but as feelings grow, past tragedy resurfaces with the power to tear them apart--or lead them to love and forgiveness.

With a dwindling bank account and a deadline looming, Daphne Fielding is pouring everything she has into finishing her master's degree in art history and an ambitious culminating project that brings together all her passions. This collaboration bridges fine art, community service at a halfway house, and a military partnership she has yet to secure, and will set her up to become an art curator at a big-name hotel. Army Major Michael Knox didn't expect the beautifully disheveled artist he met at a fundraiser for a halfway house to upend his carefully ordered world. With a demanding new position and an approaching deployment, the last thing he can afford is distraction. And Daphne, still carrying the weight of past mistakes that haunt her, can't afford to lose her heart again. The more hours they devote to her project, the harder it becomes to pretend the feelings growing between them are anything less than real. But past tragedy resurfaces with the power to tear them apart--or lead them to the love and forgiveness they've both been seeking. In this stirring contemporary romance, Deborah Clack deftly explores the weight of past mistakes, the burden of secrets kept, and the hope of lasting love.