When widower Madison Applewhite, the mayor of a small Texas town, agrees to attend a meeting at the White House, he can't refuse.
But after answering unending questions about his town's social and power structure, Madison still doesn't quite know why he's here in Washington, DC. The meeting's striking hostess Gloria Hernandez, a vague memory from his past, enchants him.
Gloria invites Madison and the other officials present to participate in a secret federal project, and when the president, vice president, and speaker of the house personally ask for his support, Madison grasps its magnitude.
Returning to Texas knowing little more than when he left, Madison is thrilled to find that Gloria has connected with his daughter, and he begins to wonder-is he ready for a new woman in his life?
Despite the meager project details, Madison agrees to move forward with the project, hoping it will boost the local economy. Everything goes well-until conflict-of-interest allegations threaten to bring both the project and his budding relationship with Gloria to a screeching halt.
Amid political and emotional turmoil and with his daughter and his community depending on him, Madison must decide-what will be jeopardized by letting himself love again?
About the Author: After a lifetime of serving as an educator and businessman, Robert Erickson has returned to his passion-writing fiction. He enjoys integrating his personal knowledge about his various interests-food, gardening, early technology, and history-into his works.
Erickson earned a degree in English literature from Texas Tech. A native Texan, he uses his home state as the backdrop for many of his stories.
