b.t. clearwater

Annie Brown's life could use some renovation. If only her dead mother would let her happy ending happen...

Annie's in trouble at work, her ex-boyfriend is stalking her, and she's just inherited her late mother's dilapidated Victorian home in Denver. The last thing she needs in her life is a man ... but when handyman Mike Tolbert comes to fix her dishwasher, all that changes.

Mike doesn't exactly need the distraction of a relationship himself. A combat veteran of the Iraq war, Mike suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. His wife left him, and he's struggling to make ends meet while still providing for his young daughter. Yet something about Annie snags his heart and he finds he cannot walk away from her.

As Mike and Annie build a relationship, they discover Annie's late mother hasn't exactly left the house – and she's certainly not leaving them alone. In fact, she's more than willing to cross the barrier between the worlds to control her daughter's life.

With the ghost of her mother haunting them, Mike and Annie face his PTSD, her troubles at work, legal battles over the house, and a deadly plot to force Annie out of her childhood home as they fight to keep their love alive.