Healing Trace — Debra Kayn

Joan O'Hanlon's life goes from hopeful to desperate in less time than it takes her car to blow up and the insurance company to inform her she's lapsed in her payment. Focusing on her new temporary job of nursing Trace LaBatte back to health from a devastating broken leg, she'll have to find a full time job soon if she's going to succeed in keeping her promise to bring her little sister, Katie, back home. What she finds in her patient is not a man who suffers from a broken bone, but a shattered soul. Bound to show him how worthy he is of love, she'll fight him every step of the way to get him to believe...even if she sacrifices her own heart in the process.

Abused and neglected while growing up on the reservation, Trace LaBatte, finds his safe spot living with his four best friends on the Lakota ranch. Living a comfortable life training horses, he gives back to his people in the only way he is capable of, while keeping a comfortable distance from everyone. That is until the determined nurse with the red hair walks into the house, plops herself down, and refuses to leave. Joan has him over thinking every emotion he's buried long ago -- ones he swore never to feed or allow to surface. It makes him feel vulnerable, edgy, and ready to run. How does someone so gentle cause him so much pain?

WARNING: Tortured hero, emotionally and physically abused. At his lowest point, he must reach out to save himself, and those who have been forgotten. Tissues required.