"The first book in The Searches series!"

Alicia DeBarillas aka Lisa Conners is on the run with her two young daughters. Her beloved husband was killed in a car accident two years before and she's been in a custody battle with her in-laws for her beloved daughters. They feel she is unfit because she has diabetes.

It was just be her luck to rent a house next door to an FBI agent for land's sakes! Then said agent, one Gage McKinnon, breaks both legs when a suspect runs him over. Their landlady, Ruth, knows that Lisa has had some nursing training so she talks her into helping out while Gage is laid up in casts on both legs. Ruth gives the incentive that Lisa can keep her girls with her while she works. Lisa is very reluctant but decides it's worth it for her girls to stay with her instead of staying with a stranger.

What Lisa doesn't count on is her heart finally thawing enough after grieving for her husband to become attracted to Gage but she knows it will be much too dangerous and Gage is so grumpy especially when it comes to her daughters but when she finds out his story she can do nothing but sympathize.

When Gage starts feeling something for Lisa it just makes him grouchier. He doesn't have the time nor the inclination for any sort of relationship especially for a woman with two children who may be cute but are pests in every sense of the word.

This is the first book of what looks to be a fabulous series. As much as I enjoyed this first book, I eagerly look forward to the rest in the series!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted January 8, 2004

Summary

As an on-the-run single mother out to protect her little girls, Lisa Connors needed two things: money, and to keep her identity secret. But it was just her luck that the possibility of the former would threaten the latter—for as the caretaker of the hunk-next-door with two broken legs, her ability to keep her distance was already shaky. When she found out said hunk's profession—FBI agent—it was downright demolished....

Gage McKinnon had spent most of his life trying to keep away from all things familial, so the last thing he needed was to have two adorable little girls take root next door. But it was their mother who posed his greatest threat. For in Lisa he felt that door in his heart—the one that had been slammed shut twenty-five years ago—start to open, just a crack.