Trust is a luxury their splintered hearts might not be able to afford…

Love isn’t for everyone. Getting dumped and ending up in a strange small town taught Tatum Richards that much. But a steamy fling with a hot firefighter? That she could handle. Until she found out his daughter was her new student…and he might want more than a fling. How’s she supposed to protect what’s left of her heart now?

Mason Byrd had love…and lost it. So, the last thing he needed was a new romance. Being a single dad kept him too busy for it, anyway. But then he met Tatum and everything changed. Now, he’s starting to wonder if he gave up on love too soon. Too bad she seems as skeptical of happily ever afters as he used to be…

Can Tatum and Mason put enough trust in each other—and in love—to overcome their painful pasts?

There’s only one way to find out…

“Micah Angeline Byrd, if you don’t get your butt down here in five minutes, you’re grounded,” I called up the stairs to my daughter who was taking her sweet time getting ready this morning.
“Dad,” she said.
“I’m not playing, Micah. Down in five.”
“Fine.”
I shook my head as I went to grab some breakfast bars for her. She’d already slept through her alarm, and we were running behind schedule. Micah’s internal clock was broken just like her mother’s had been, and she couldn’t get anywhere on time. It drove me nuts. I glanced at the clock on the stove to see how much time she had left. She finally joined me with thirty seconds to spare.
“Here,” I said, handing her the apple cinnamon and strawberry cereal bars. “There’s no time for a real breakfast since you didn’t get yourself up this morning.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said, giving me puppy-dog eyes she knew I couldn’t resist.
I softened. “I know, sweet pea. Let’s go so I can still walk you inside.”
She gave me a hug before grabbing her backpack by the door. I made sure I had the things I needed, and we left. Micah climbed up and into the backseat of my truck. Once she had her seatbelt on, she connected her phone and put on her music. It was hard to believe she was already in sixth grade. Where did the time go? I was just happy she still wanted to keep up our first day of school tradition: me walking her into the school and to her class. I knew my time with this was limited. Any year now she would tell me that she didn’t need to be walked inside, but for now, it was still something she was okay with.
“Brayden isn’t in the same homeroom with me,” Micah was saying. “But we have math and science together.”
I made a non-committal sound that she took as permission to go on. I had mixed feelings about Brayden. He was a good kid, and I knew his parents well, but I didn’t want my daughter to be hurt like I’d been. I didn’t want her to go through what I went through when her mother passed away. I wouldn’t forbid her from seeing him, though.
“I’m glad I got Mrs. Fletcher for social studies. She’s my homeroom teacher too,” Micah said. “Everyone says she’s really nice and makes boring history fun.”
I chuckled. “I guess that’s all you can hope for.”
“I know! And she’s younger, so she’ll be cooler, right?”
“Possibly. Some young people can be just as strict and uncool,” I told her.
“That’s true,” she agreed.
I pulled into the middle school parking lot and found a spot. Micah jumped out of the truck as I turned off the ignition. She was one of those weird kids who actually loved school. She got it from her mother for sure because school wasn’t my forte. I joined Micah at the bed of my truck, and she slipped her smaller hand into mine. I smiled a little as she started dragging me across the parking lot.
“Slow down, Mic. They won’t start any learning without you,” I teased.
She shot me a look with narrow eyes. “You don’t know that. This is middle school. A whole different beast.”
I didn’t even bother arguing with her. We greeted the principal and vice principal on our way to Micah’s classroom. She was telling me how she could go to her locker after homeroom as we stepped into the class. The sound of a gasp and Micah’s face lighting up had my head snapping in the direction of the woman standing by the teacher’s desk in Micah’s classroom—Tatum. My hot summer fling was my daughter’s new teacher.

Rosa Oaks Series, Book Three