The requirement is ridiculous but simple. Spend two months in Cedar Falls and play the mayor’s games to ensure that The Retreat, Sharpe International’s newest resort, can open.

But I have a history with this small, Montana town. One I’d tried to forget but never could. Asher Wells. My Lavender Girl.

She’d had dreams and aspirations to leave Cedar Falls and make her mark on the world. So why is she still here, standing in front of me? And more importantly, why is she looking at me with hurt in her eyes when I was the one who‘d been forced to leave or else face the damning consequences of that night?

I have everything in life: money, success, an empire to run . . . everything except for one, very important thing. Her.

Fifteen years is a long time to wonder. . . what if. I’ll be damned if I leave town this time without her.