I dropped my phone in the trash and drove north.
Twenty years of making myself smaller than I was. Twenty years of asking permission for things that should have been mine. When my kids finally leave home, and an unexpected inheritance shows up, like the universe finally taking my side, I sign the divorce papers, and I go.
Silver Hollow, Maine, wasn't on my radar.
Neither was Orin Callahan.
He finds lost people for a living. Apparently, he's pretty good at it. What he's not good at is letting anyone close. He's spent five years making sure of that.
We were not supposed to happen.
Foraging walks and Earl Grey tea and a first kiss in the snow that I'm still not over - yeah. We happened.
By Thanksgiving, I have something I didn't know I was allowed to want. A home. People who feel like family. A man who looks at me like I'm not too much.
And then my ex goes quiet.
I know what that means. I've spent twenty years learning to read his silences.
Everything I've built is now everything I stand to lose.
I'm not running this time.
I'm staying for something worth protecting.
Rooted Beneath the Pines is a standalone contemporary romance with elements of romantic suspense. If you love slow-burn romance with heat, a healing era heroine who finally chooses herself, small-town Maine, found family, herbalism, and a quiet, steady man who was absolutely worth waiting for - Silver Hollow is waiting for you.