Becca Gallagher was taking her new job as co-manager of the Red Door Café and part-time bartender at the Ambrose Tavern seriously. Even if it meant she was working so much, there was hardly time to breathe.

She was used to working hard. She’d been working at her cousin’s restaurant since she was sixteen. And she loved the fact Paxton trusted her to fill in for him at the bar. She’d breathe later, in a year or two, when things settled down.

When a stranger showed up at the bar one night, he made an impression on her. But she kept it professional and only chatted with him briefly. The next morning, when her cousin Hadley came into the café kitchen to complain about a rude customer, Becca was surprised to find the stranger from the bar.

Jamison Teller couldn’t help but be amused by the woman scolding him for being rude to her waitress. In his mind, he did nothing wrong. But he acquiesced and apologized. He had an agenda in Calaway Crossing. And staying on the right side of the people who lived there could only further it.

Becca was suspicious of the handsome stranger who had no ties to the community. What possible reason could he have to stay in the tiny town in the middle of nowhere? She didn’t have any answers. But she was determined to find out.