When Dan Cassidy walked into her Santa Monica bistro, romance was the
last thing on Ellie Parrish Duveen's mind.
Alone in the world except for her beloved grandmother, Lottie, Ellie
grew up as the sole heir to her family's once formidable fortune. Over
time, however, that fortune dwindled, making it increasingly difficult
for her grandmother to live in the family's old Italianate mansion in
the Montecito hills. Between running her small restaurant and trying to
take care of her grandmother, Ellie doesn't exactly have time for men.
Dan, once a New York City cop, owner of a rundown winery, is also too
busy for love. Still, his attraction to Ellie is undeniable. But their
brief glimpse of a future together is quickly interrupted, for a dark
secret lurking in her family's infamous history is about to resurface.
And what Ellie doesn't know about her own past could kill them all.
Unknown to Ellie, another man has also returned to California--her
half-brother Buck Duveen, ostracized from the family 20 years ago and
left forgotten in a sanitarium in New York. Suddenly released, Buck sets
out to reclaim what once could have been his, and insinuates himself
into Ellie's life. He wants the family's mansion. The fortune and
privileged life he was denied. Most of all, he wants to strike back at
the woman who sent him a away--Lottie Parrish--and everything
surrounding her...including her granddaughter Ellie.
