Ten years before Madrid, Jane Donovan is a kid growing up in an orphanage and flirting with the wrong side of the law. Looking for the family that has eluded her, she has a choice to make. Live her mother's doomed life, or get off the streets. Finding the courage to reach for her dreams isn't easy, but in the end, will she take the road that will give her everything she's always wanted?

Stella Carmichael can't believe her life with her husband, though not always perfect, is over. All she wants is to shut herself away in their too empty house, and turn her back on the world she's quite certain will go on happily without her.

Thanks to her interfering daughters, she's exiled to London. Instead of licking her wounds in solitude, Stella's babysitting a rebellious teenager, and having to make sense of her life thousands of miles from home. Repairing her family's fragile relationships is not an easy task. While getting to know her sullen granddaughter, meeting new friends, and embarking on an unexpected flirtation, she discovers family is a gift; and living, something to be treasured.

There’s no place like home, and to Gunnery Sergeant Jane Donovan, home is the US Marine Corps. But, she’s made a mistake. A tragic mistake that cost an orphaned kid from the poorest part of Madrid his life. Because of a little insubordination and disorderly conduct on her part, she’s about to lose the one thing she values most. The family and good life she’s forged in the Corps. Now she has one option. Put her future in the hands of Dr. Chase Russell, or become a civilian. The choice is hers.

Chase Russell has royally screwed up. Busy chasing a lucrative book deal that would legitimize his theories about treating war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and let’s face it, give him a certain amount of fame too, he missed a client’s cry for help and subsequent admission to the hospital for a failed drug overdose. That the client was his brother makes his arrogance more reprehensible. In the aftermath, he leaves his lucrative practice in Chicago to start over on a lovely, neglected Central Oregon ranch, looking for the peace and sanctuary he craves, but hardly deserves.

When the Marine arrives, nursing a cranky hip and an even crankier disposition, he wants nothing to do with her, but the fun is just beginning. Between helping two runaway kids, and taking the stubborn Marine through play therapy, what’s an ex-counselor to do, but make sure this hero finds her way home.