Running out on Kemah because of her betrayal and joining the ranks of the United States Navy, may not have been the smartest decision Brennan Trellis had ever made, but it was the best he could do on short notice. He found that his heart was safer at sea than it ever was on land. As far as he was concerned it was the only way to stay away from the conniving, coldhearted opposite sex. Women left a trail of destruction in their wake and Kemah McGovern was the ring leader. After 5 long years and a permanent injury that received him a medical and honorable discharge, Brennan returned home to Napa California. Soon after, he began dating the local women but he still had his hang-ups about them, only this time he wouldn't allow himself to get burned. Every woman he dated, and he dated plenty, was the very opposite of Kemah. Fair skin, tall and pencil thin, anything to keep the memories away. Or at least that's what he had hoped. The past always has a way of catching up with you as Brennan later found out. His memories of their love weren't just memories, and trying to fight it, he discovered, was far more challenging than fighting the enemy in the Gulf.