Attorney Bradley Ellington Taylor, known as Duke to his family and close friends, was fighting off the inevitability of middle age as hard as he could. He was in excellent health and regularly exercised by riding his ten-speed racer and playing pro/am basketball with a group of attorneys who called themselves The Sharks. He had succeeded professionally as a lobbyist beyond his wildest dreams. His law firm, Bradley Taylor and Associates, was well respected by those in the Washington, DC, political arena and by his wealth of clients. He also successfully raised four children alone after he lost his wife. Now, they had established themselves in their very comfortable careers. Still, none were married, so grandchildren weren't in his immediate future. Yet, although he had everything a man could need at this point in his life, he didn't have anyone with whom to share the rest of his days.

Hellena Keys learned the hard way how to battle the hardships life handed her. She was a mother at fifteen, and the father of her baby girl, the love of her life, died in a war on another continent. Her father and his helped her start a florist business, Keys to the Garden, but they both died before she was twenty-one. Still, although she struggled hard and long, her daughter was now a lawyer working at a prestigious law firm, Bradley Taylor and Associates. Everything in Hellena's life seemed to be on the rise until someone attacked her daughter and put her in the hospital in critical condition.Bradley comes to the hospital where Hellena awaits the doctors' prognosis and has an instant and unexpected reaction to his talented employee's lovely mother.