"Who needs diamonds when you have the stars?" Brooke's question was posed to the sparkling sky. It was the final night of her spring break, and the first time she and Rafe had been together after dark. The voice she heard a moment later was Rafe's, but the language was music.
"What did you say, Rafe?" What are you singing to me?
"I said what you said, Brooke. 'Who needs diamonds when you have the stars?'"
"But in what language?"
"Nahuatl. The language of my ancestors." Rafe is a descendant of enemies, of vanquished emperor and triumphant conquistador, and inside him the battle rages still. When a monstrous storm destroys everyone and everything Rafe loves, he finds sanctuary in a new land and comfort in the gentle grace of horses. He applies for work at Fox Haven Farm, an equestrian estate in Virginia, and home of 17-year-old Brooke and 15-year-old Lily. The girls were raised as sisters and were once so close, but Lily's mysterious illness has separated them. Only Brooke is at the Farm when Rafe arrives. Lily is at a clinic in Switzerland with Brooke's mother and Lily's father. Rafe and Brooke have nine days together, caring for the horses they love, smiling, talking . . . and touching? No. Rafe is a worldly twenty-two year-old and Brooke is a lovely innocent. And, he believes, they have all the time in the world. But tragedy strikes when Lily returns. Within hours of the tragedy Brooke is gone-without even saying goodbye-to live with her grandmother in California, and fragile, devastated Lily, the sole heir to Fox Haven Farm, is alone, afraid, and needing Rafe's help. Now, Brooke decides to go back to the Farm. She must. Her life is stalled. She has to make sense of the past, make peace with it, before she can truly go forward.