He only wanted to be a father to his children... But that was the one thing Daniel Kendrick couldn't be. Falsely accused of a crime that severed him from his family, he made a new, solitary life for himself in New Orleans. Soon that, too, was shattered. His teenage daughter had run away--had run to him. How could he explain that he couldn't give her the home she longed for? How could he convince youth worker Tessa Hamilton to let him see her? Tessa, after all, was the woman who had damned him in the eyes of the law. But Tessa is having second thoughts about her testimony. Now that she's met Daniel, she has strong doubts about his guilt. She doesn't, however, doubt that she's strongly attracted to him...