First published 2025
Tansy Perkins has her priorities straight: her daughter and her library branch come first. Everything else can wait. Then a hurricane tears through town and destroys her building. The county forces her to set up temporary operations in a shed at the botanical gardens, where Jack Reid works as assistant director. Jack rescued Tansy and her daughter from the floodwaters, but he makes it clear that hosting the library staff disrupts his orderly world of plants and predictable routines. Six years after his divorce, Jack keeps people at arm's length. Tansy focuses on rebuilding what she lost. When their bosses assign them to collaborate on the spring festival, they agree to a professional truce. Working together reveals an unexpected connection neither saw coming. Both have sworn off romantic complications, but their partnership deepens into something more intimate. Then funding becomes available that could secure both institutions' futures. Tansy and Jack must choose between the safe paths they planned and the uncertain territory of opening their hearts again.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance
Vibes: character-driven, emotional, heartwarming, hopeful, intimate
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, second-chance-romance, slow-burn
Setting: botanical gardens, library branch
Period: contemporary
384 pages · Paperback · G.P. Putnam's Sons
Content warnings: death