Resplendent in Ruby — Sandra Sookoo

When a second chance at love comes with a new perspective, chase it with eyes—and a heart—wide open. Julianna Leah Winslow, Lady Mayborne, is three years a widow. While packing items to clear clutter, she finds an antique jade elephant among her husband's possessions. When a secret panel pops open revealing a cryptic note with the name of his best friend—the man she'd wanted to marry as a young girl—she summons James no matter that seeing him again will open old wounds not fully healed. James Percival Holles, Earl of Braxton, has just turned forty-two. It's time to marry and set up his nursery, but every relationship he's had has ended in disaster. When an urgent summons comes from Julianna, he's immediately wary but intrigued, and agrees to travel to the Berkshire estate to perhaps vent his spleen and air old grievances. He would not let the fact that he still had a tendre for her sway his attitude. Emotions explode each time they're together, to say nothing of her twenty-year-old son's animosity toward James, yet when long-held secrets are brought into the light, both he and Julianna find a shaky peace and a new direction. As the August days pass, they give into the desire brewing between them, and trust is put to the forefront. If they can stop hiding their true selves and surrender to the strength and security found as a couple, they'll have a chance to grasp a second chance at love.