About

Esper thought she buried her first love years ago. At seventeen, Zane was the boy who promised her forever. Then, without warning, his famiky moved two states away after his father accepted a new job. Zane promised he would call every night. He did, but Esper never received a single call. She eventually stopped waiting. Life forced her to grow up quickly. Her mother died shortly after Zane left, leaving Esoer to navigate her grief beside a father who became increasingly distant. Two years ago, her father passed away, leaving her the sprawling family ranch and a fortune large enough that she never needed to work another day. But Esper keeps working the ranch anything. The land is the last piece of family she has left. Then Zane comes home. At twenty-nine, he is no longer the teenage cowboy she remembers. He is taller, harder, quieter, and carrying years of unanswered questions. He never understood why Esper stopped responding to his calls. She never understood why he stopped calling. When he finally discovers the truth, he realizes neither of them abandoned the other. Someone-or something-kept them apart. Zane wants Esper back, but she refuses to simply fall into his arms because he has finally returned. She has spent years learning how to survive without him and she refuses to become the girl who waits by the ohone again. So Zane stays. He helps around the ranch. He earns her father's old hands' respect. He slowly becomes a part of Esper's world again. Every shared meal, horseback ride, late-night conversation, and stolen glances brings back feelings, neither of them managed to kill. But just as Esper begins letting him in, the past resurfaced. The truth about those missing calls threatens to destroy the fragile trust they've rebuilt, and forces Esper to decide whether she can risk giving her first love a second chance Zane already knows what he wants. He doesn't want to relive their past. He wants to build the future they were supposed to have.