Elle Gardner

Dustin, I can be a prick. I know this, and I’ve been working on it since high school. No, really I have. Nothing could remind me of that little fact better than the girl I owed the biggest apology of my life. Only, Willa had disappeared until the day I managed to get her fired from her job 12 years later. I could make things right for her; get her a position on my team at Hunter Railways.

There are many rules a priest can't break. A priest cannot marry. A priest cannot abandon his flock. A priest cannot forsake his God. I've always been good at following rules. Until she came. Then I learned new rules.

Secret Service agent Kent Sinclair, head of POTUS security, thought himself prepared for every contingency. Until the First Lady - a woman who barely tolerates his presence - approaches him with a request that startles the hell out of him. Carlene Broderick is frightened. With the weight of the country and impending war on his shoulders, her husband, James, is buckling under the strain. The key to helping him cope is the name he calls out in his sleep - and it's not hers.

A young Mickey navigates through the dense Texas humidity of the '70s and out onto the porch every single time his granddaddy calls him, where he's presented with the heirloom recipe for life, love, and manhood. But all the logic and insight in the world cannot prepare him to operate correctly in the presence of a wonderfully beautiful little girl who moves in just behind his rear fence.