Deep Down. Karen Harper

You can’t leave the past behind…As a child, Jessie Lockwood spent many hours helping with her mother Mariah’s research in the local woods of Deep Down, Kentucky. There she fell in love with the tiny Appalachian town. Now a PhD student, Jessie’s made her home elsewhere, even though it meant leaving Deep Down and her beloved mother – and Sheriff Drew Webb, the man she secretly loved.When Jessie is notified that her mother never returned from her last walk in the woods, she comes home to Deep Down – and to Drew. As Jessie and Drew race to find her mother, only two things make sense to Jessie. She will protect her family at any cost. And she can’t help falling desperately in love with Drew all over again…