He can pack his whole life in under an hour. She’s spent a year building one nobody can take away.
Emma Torres came to Haven Creek to disappear. After barely surviving a toxic boss, all she wanted was a barn, a routine, and animals who needed her exactly as she was. She says she’s fine. She says it a lot. She’s still learning how to mean it.
Liam Fitzgerald is only here for eight weeks. The rescue’s temporary vet tech. Her friend’s impossibly quiet brother. A man who’s spent ten years living out of a tiny house hitched behind his truck, everything he owns ready to move at a moment’s notice. He’s great with animals and terrible with people. He’s very good at being alone. He’ll tell you those are the same thing.
Then the rescue takes in Scout, a collie who can open any latch, and a goat named Houdini who treats every fence in Montana as a personal insult. Apart, they’re unstoppable. But penned side by side, they simply stop running.
Emma notices. So does Liam.
Eight weeks is long enough for Emma to sit up all night with a sick old dog and say things in the dark she’d never say in daylight. But it’s not nearly long enough for Liam, who’s never stayed anywhere, to learn how.
Can a man who leaves before anyone can leave him, and a woman too frightened to ask for something she might not get to keep, both be brave enough before his eight weeks run out to reach for a second chance at love?
