He’s a champion in the ring. She’s fighting for her son’s future. But their biggest battle is the one they thought they’d already lost.

Six years ago, Stone Steel left Pittsburgh with nothing but a dream and a broken heart. Now, he’s a professional wrestling sensation with a million-dollar contract and his sights set on the Olympics. He’s built a wall of muscle and fame to prove he’s worth everything his stepmother tried to take from him.

Vanessa Maye is done with dreams. As a single mother working to keep her family afloat, she’s traded her passions for responsibility. When she’s reunited with Stone at a picturesque Napa Valley wedding, the spark between them is an inferno she can’t afford to ignite.

Stone wants a second chance at the only woman he ever loved. Vanessa wants to protect the secret she’s kept for six years: a little boy named Rocky who has his father’s jawline and a heart of gold.

As old enemies resurface and family secrets threaten to dismantle Stone’s career, Vanessa must decide if she can trust the man he’s become, or if the truth will destroy the family they were always meant to be.

Vanessa Maye

Avoid Stone for a few more hours, I told myself. You’ve avoided him this long in Napa. It’s easy enough to pretend you’re busy with this wedding. You’re a bridesmaid—they help the bride.

Pep talk done, I stepped back. No more staring at myself in the mirror of the women’s restroom in the hotel lobby. I wasn’t his anymore. We’d moved on. I squared my shoulders in my sleeveless full-length green bridesmaid dress. After leaving Pittsburgh six years ago, he’d never looked back.

Another guest, a woman I didn’t know, came into the bathroom, and I stilled as she headed past me. Then I breathed again as she passed and didn’t even blink at me or pay me any attention.

Stone was out there, and he had no idea I’d had his son, who was currently at home with my mom while I flew to Napa for this all-expenses-paid wedding.

The avoid-Stone-at-all-costs mission had been easy so far since the Steel family had used the wedding as a family reunion. So I’d disappeared after wedding duties to see the sights of Napa Valley, taste wine, and call home. I missed my boy.

The wedding ceremony had kept me busy, but all that remained was the reception. Hopefully, Stone would stay with his little sister and extended family on one end of the ballroom while I stayed on the other.

A toilet flushed in one of the stalls. Time to leave the sink and the white walls with bright mirrors and head inside. The hall was busy with people, but I stopped at the door of the ballroom with a view of one of the vineyards of Napa. The bride, Indigo Steel, was seriously living the dream with this wedding. Everything about this was picturesque. Pittsburgh never smelled this sweet, even in the spring.

I scanned the ballroom to find him. I was at the head table, with the wedding party, and Stone wasn’t anywhere in the room. Good.

I stepped forward to go to my seat, but a strong hand cupped my wrist. My heartbeat strummed, and I glanced up to see the one man I never wanted to see again and the only man who’d ever made me weak in the knees.

His lips curved higher on his square face. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“True.” My heart raced a little more. He didn’t let me go, and I didn’t struggle. I didn’t know who I’d been kidding in the bathroom. If he wanted me, I was his.

“I thought we were cool,” he said. “You helped me track down Emily’s number.”

Cool wasn’t a word I would have used to describe us, but yes, I’d helped him get his sister’s phone number. It was a simple kindness. I tugged my hand away and crossed my arms under my chest, heaving it a little in his direction to see if he even noticed. “One phone call doesn’t make us friends, but I remembered how your stepmother took everything from you, including your cell phone. You were lucky the car was in your name after the funeral.”

“Lana is the devil.” He glanced down, and my nipples betrayed me under the sheer dress.

I dropped my hands so he wouldn’t see how hard he’d already made my nipples.

“And we were more than friends… once.”

I closed my eyes. His nearness still made me ache for more, but he was right. We were the past, and I had our son as a living memory. Ignoring the heat in my veins, I said, “Life moves on, and clearly, you have been favored.”

He brushed my shoulder, just for a moment as he came closer, but my lips tingled for his kiss when he said, “I trained hard—all day, every day.”

“That’s clearly true.” I pressed my hand on his chest, and a shock rushed in me. This was a mistake.

He was all dense muscle, and my fingers ached to discover if he was still hard and passionate underneath that suit of his. I let out a sigh as I let him go. “My mother was convinced you were bad news and would never amount to anything.”

I played with my gold necklace as he rocked on his feet. “My stepmother probably still thinks that of me. She made Emily’s life hard in the past five years, but with you, I wasn’t always a bad boy.”