When best friends Jamie Eckert and Derek Duran realized they were in love, they took their relationship to the next level. But then Derek's budding music career took off, and so did Derek. Twenty years later, Jamie still lives in the small town of Ashbury, Virginia, where he grew up. He's grown up and moved on -- now he owns the family funeral home business and is raising Riley, his precocious six-year-old adopted daughter. But emotions Jamie thought long buried are stirred up again when he gets an early morning removal call. The deceased is Derek's mother and Riley's babysitter, Mrs. Duran. Now Derek's back in town for the funeral, and he turns to Jamie for support ... in more ways than one. Angry at Derek for not keeping in touch, and angrier at himself for still loving the man who left him behind, Jamie is torn between his professional duty and his feelings for Derek. Will he be able to put aside his past with Derek to carry out Mrs. Duran's final wishes? Or is Derek interested in rekindling their relationship after all this time?

Not Another One Hit Wonder

“She watched her for me,” I tell him. “I’d drop her off on my way to work and pick her up at the end of the day. Riley loved her.”


“Riley.” Derek touches the picture, running a hand down Riley’s long hair, sleek and brushed back over her shoulders in the photo. “She has your eyes.”


With a laugh, I admit, “I can never understand when people say stuff like that. To me, she looks like Lisa.”


Derek frowns as he tries to remember who that is. “Your sister? A little, yeah, I guess, but I think she looks a lot like you.”


“It’s the hair.” I run a hand through the thick mop on top of my head—I wear it shorter than I used to, but then again, now I have a respectable business to run. I keep it clipped in the back and parted to one side, and the little bit of length on top barely covers my forehead. But it’s the same shade of brown as Riley’s, though mine is shot through with the first strands of gray.


Chapter 21