Ruby Raines was supposed to die of cancer. Instead, she survived—only to lose the very pieces of herself that made survival worth it. Once a celebrated music producer with rhythm in her blood, Ruby now hides in a quiet townhouse far from Nashville, nursing headaches, scars, and a silence she can’t escape. The woman she used to be is gone. What’s left is a hollow shell, a mere echo of the vibrant woman she once was... moreRuby Raines was supposed to die of cancer. Instead, she survived—only to lose the very pieces of herself that made survival worth it. Once a celebrated music producer with rhythm in her blood, Ruby now hides in a quiet townhouse far from Nashville, nursing headaches, scars, and a silence she can’t escape. The woman she used to be is gone. What’s left is a hollow shell, a mere echo of the vibrant woman she once was. Then her neighbor’s daughters break her car window… and something inside her cracks. Hayes Davenport never expected to start over as a single dad in a cramped townhouse, but he’s determined to give his girls a life filled with love. The only thing he can’t seem to manage is his grumpy neighbor, Ruby, who won’t talk, won’t smile, and definitely won’t return the kids’ stolen toys. Until the day she lets his daughters inside… and Hayes discovers a woman he can’t stop thinking about. What starts as reluctant babysitting during the hours between school and Hayes getting home becomes something else entirely. Ruby’s walls loosen under the girls’ laughter. Hayes starts to see the woman beneath the bitterness. And slowly—dangerously—Ruby begins to feel alive again. As her health improves, so does her connection to the man next door. Nights become hotter. Secrets become deeper. And the walls Ruby built to protect herself start to crumble under Hayes’s hands and the way he whispers her name. He makes her feel wanted. Desired. Alive. But when Ruby’s old world comes roaring back—the fame, the pressure, the ghosts of who she once was—it threatens everything she’s started to rebuild including the life she once didn’t want. less
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