My fresh start came with a grumpy town vet who fills a doorway and will not meet my eye.
And a grief he has zero plans to explain.
One look at those hands and I forgot every rule I ever made about men.
He caught me when I fell.
Chest to chest.
His hands at my waist.
The man smells like cedar and cold mornings and bad decisions.
He told me he works alone.
I started showing up anyway.
But wait.
My rented cabin burned to the ground, and the only rooms left in town were the ones right over his clinic.
In a mountain town with nowhere else to run.
He does not flirt.
He does not talk.
He just fixes broken things with those rough hands like he is deciding whether they are worth saving.
He handed my frightened little boy a wounded dog and a reason to believe the world could be safe, and never once asked for the credit.
The way he looked at me across a freezing barn at two in the morning and said, "You should go home, Zoe." I did not.
He was not surprised.
This silent, grumpy, gentle man is tearing down walls I spent a whole marriage building.
He says he is a closed door.
He says he ruins everything he loves.
But the man I ran from is coming back up the mountain to take it all, and I am finally, completely done disappearing.
Grumpy Veterinarian's Second Chances is a steamy standalone small-town romance with forced proximity, a single mom who saves herself, a heartbroken grump who falls hard, a fierce found family, a scene-stealing rescue dog, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after. No cheating. No cliffhangers.