"The choice is yours," Joel was saying

Joel's biting contempt of her over a teenage episode that he had wrongly interpreted had permanently scarred Lissa--left her unable to respond to any man.

Now, years later, they were at loggerheads over their joint guardianship of her sister's little girls. No way would Lissa give them up. But Joel's proposal of marriage came as a shock.

She'd learned to live without Joel. How could she possibly learn to live with him? Knowing his contempt for her was still there, knowing that she loved him.