The day Graham Vale's house went up for auction, I packed three dogs, two suitcases, and the last check he'd ever written me. I meant to drive back to the coastal town where I'd grown up and start over without him. Then I saw him in the marble hall, leaning on a cane while a stranger joked that a man who couldn't keep his house shouldn't expect anyone to keep him. Graham didn't answer. I did. By sunset, I was taking him home with me. I'd spent three years being the woman he paid to stand beside him, but I had no idea whether he'd let me stay now that he had nothing to offer—or whether I could care for him without disappearing into the old arrangement again.