Evan found her sitting on a fallen log by the river, knees pulled to her chest, face buried in her arms. Six-year-old Nora Burke was sniffling, shoulders shaking.
He knew the rules. Hollistons didn’t mix with Burkes.
But her crying sounded too much like his mother’s.
“Hey,” he said softly.
Her head jerked up, big red-rimmed eyes wide. “You’re not supposed to talk to me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not supposed to be on this side of the river.” He sat on the far end of the log. “What’s wrong?”
She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I don’t like my school in Boston. Everyone talks funny. I want to stay here… but I have no friends.”
Evan nodded. He understood storms. “When it feels like a storm at home, I look for the sunny part.” He pointed at the sky—one side dark clouds, the other bright blue. “Or I make some.”
Nora stared at the blue sky for a long time. “But what about the storm? Aren’t you scared?”
“Not till it’s right on top of me.” He held out his hand to help her off the log. “If anybody ever bothers you, you can tell me. I’ll set ’em straight.”
She looked at him like he could fly.
That was the day Evan Holliston became Nora Burke’s secret guardian angel.
Twenty years later, he still is.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of Evan and Nora!
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Thank you for being on this Firebrook Valley journey with me. Your support means everything ❤️
One small town. Two powerful families. Thirty years of secrets are finally reaching their breaking point.
New York Times bestselling author Ruth Cardello raises the stakes in the third book of the Firebrook Valley series. Get ready for a high-tech, secret-billionaire romance where a golden retriever hero meets a brilliant, guarded woman with a family who doesn't want to be found.
Brady
I’ve always been the one who sees the best in people. My family calls it naïve. I call it paying attention. With tensions rising in Firebrook, it’s up to me to figure out what really started this decades-long feud. I came looking for a man named Thomas Steele. Instead, I found her. She’s brilliant. Careful. Completely closed off and somehow still showing up everywhere I go. The more I try to
understand her, the more I want to help her find her smile. And, yeah, I’m supposed to be solving a mystery. But I'll get there when I get there, and hopefully she'll be at my side when I do.
Elise
My father taught me three things: stay off the grid, trust no one, and never let your guard down. Then Brady Holliston showed up. Charming. Persistent. Impossible to ignore. So I lie to him. A lot. I tell myself I’m studying him. Testing him. Waiting for him to slip. But he doesn’t. Instead, I find myself doing things like playing cards with old women who adore him, breaking into places I shouldn’t, and waking up beside a man I was
never supposed to trust. The more we uncover, the more dangerous this becomes. Because falling for Brady isn’t just a risk. It’s a betrayal. And if I step out of the shadows for him, there may be no way back.
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