What do you think?
Rate this book


Paperback
Published September 14, 2026
“I do need you...”And when she shows up at your house unexpectedly & you happen to be shirtless, you give your bicep a little flex, right? Duh!
“Not for the right reasons.”
“How wrong can they be?” His expression lifts, a smile tempting the corners of his mouth upward.
“You need me to stay because you like the company.” It’s not exactly a bad thing that he wants me around for his own benefit. That street runs two ways. “That’s all.”
“That’s all I need, for you to know I want you to stay.”
I jerk up to see her, stupidly forgetting about the injuries, and fall back in pain, gritting my teeth to keep from bellowing like a . . . well, like a wimp in pain... But her seeing me lying around like a lump on a log isn’t exactly how I'd hoped to run into the beauty again.But then when it seems like she's gonna be staying at your house & you don't like the idea of a stranger as a roommate (no matter how hot she might be), you call for help... literally. And what does the hot nurse do? She tackles you. Damn!
Chopping wood shirtless.
Running along the docks for exercise. Shirtless.
Getting that key to the city with her eyes latched onto me. With a shirt, but damn, I want to be shirtless with her. That’s how I want her to see me—strong, upright, and hopefully finding me as attractive as I find her...
The hot nurse coming to check on me? Welp, a little heads-up so I could make myself more presentable would have been nice...
Her eyes travel from my injured shoulder to the healthy one, where her gaze lingers. I tighten my hand into a fist in a desperate attempt to flex my muscles, but her gaze has already slid above my head.
“Why would you be staying?” This has gotten awkward. “I think I should call the hospital.”These two bumbling fools keep up the awkward, yet totally adorable interactions throughout the story & I swear, I almost got secondhand embarrassment from a couple of scenes. Haha.
“That’s probably best...”
“Let me get everyone a glass of water while we’re waiting.”
Waiting . . .
Waiting for the hospital to answer.
Waiting to find out what the hell is going on.
Waiting for this woman to stab us to death . . . “Mountain Laurel Cove Hospital, how may I direct your call?”
“Hi, this is Brandon Culver. I was released earlier—” ...
“How can I help you? Is everything alright?”
“I’m fine. But I currently have a little situation going on.” I keep my eyes on the rogue redhead as she inspects her cuticles, tapping her foot like I’m putting her out. I lower my voice and hold the phone closer to my mouth. “A nurse showed up at my house.” Autumn’s eyes dart to mine and narrow. “I think she’s in distress and needs—”
“What?” she shouts, running for the phone. Lunging toward me, I hold the phone just out of her grasping hands... “Distress? Are you insa—”
“I need help.”
Falling face down in my lap, she pushes off so fast that she lands on her ass, gasping for air like a fish flailing on the docks. “Hang up, Brandon!”
I maneuver myself to peek over the couch just as she pops up and grabs the phone from my hand. Devious little thing. “Hello?” she says, getting to her feet and walking away from me. “Stacy? It’s Autumn . . . Yes, that’s right . . . He’s fine—”
“Help me, Stacy,” I yell just as she starts down the hall with my phone.
“He doesn’t need help, but the concussion might be worse than we realized,” she says nice and loud for me to hear...
As for toothpaste, I sneak down the hall into his bathroom and load the bristles before tiptoeing through the bedroom.The things I liked about Suzie's writing in the first book—her ability to choreograph a scene in a vibrant, realistic manor & create likeable characters—were very much present in this one too & I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet, heartfelt romance.
“Ack!” A tall figure stands in the shadows of the doorway. Brandishing my toothbrush, I jab it in the midsection and run down the hall to Brandon under the echoing groans behind me. “Wake up, Brand—oh no! ... Brandon, is that you?”
“What the fuck, Autumn?”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry.” With the light behind me, it’s hard to see anything other than a figure brought to its knees. Rushing back to him, I say, “Logic didn’t kick in, and I thought I was being attacked.”
He groans louder and looks up at me. “Attacked by your patient who happens to live here?” ...
“Well, um, you were wandering around in the dark—”
“In my own house...”
“Valid point. Sorry, I’m used to a house full of noisy people who stomp around on creaky wood floors. It’s so quiet here. I didn’t hear you and didn’t expect you to be walking around. I thought you were still asleep.” I drop to my knees and cup his face with my hands. “Look at me, Brandon.”
His gaze flows from the floor to meet mine, and each harsh breath of his softens. The lack of bright light can’t hide the way his eyes caress me...
“I think you’re going to live.”
“Tell that to my abs.”
Leaning down, I say, “You’re going to live,” and walk back toward the living room...
“I was expecting to get help, but this isn’t how I imagined home healthcare worked.” He’s not wrong.
I’m screwing this up. I’ve already “tackled” him as he put it, and now I’ve brought him to his knees by wounding him with a hygienic tool. Not how I prefer to bring a man to his knees. “It’s different for everyone, but I haven’t made it easy. I’m sorry for stabbing you with my toothbrush and for not making this easier on you, which is in my actual job description.”
He chuckles but winces. “Stabbing your patients with toothbrushes is in your job description?”
“More the latter part.” I laugh lightly...
“Is that from today?”Such an adorable audiobook & these narrators absolutely understood the assignment. If you've been around my page for a minute, you know that I'm a Jason Clarke fan... so yeah, no surprise from me, he did a great job with this performance too.
“Probably. I don’t know. Would I even notice anymore?” he says, his tone matching his sourpuss expression.
I smooth a clean bandage over the wound, and eye him suspiciously. His pout is ridiculous, but I can’t help myself. “Do you want me to kiss it and make it all better?”
His eyes light up. I roll my eyes, kissing the tips of my fingers before pressing them to the bandaged wound. “You’re all good again.”
He reaches up... [to] touch his lips. “What about here?”
I really hate how handsome this man is. So distracting. He really makes it hard to look away. “You got that charm of yours working overtime...”
“Believe it or not, it comes natural...”
“I think I have a boo-boo that needs kissing, too.”
With his hair hanging over his forehead and some blood dried on his chest, he couldn’t look more rugged and masculine. I’ve waged this war before... “I can do you one better.”
“Oh yeah?”
Tapping his nose, I say, “I can call your mom to do it.”
She’s fucking gorgeous.But this was my first experience with Vanessa Edwin & after this, I'm definitely a fan. Of course there were sweet moments, which these narrators did very well, but there were also several funny moments & I think that's where their performances stood out, especially Vanessa's. Both narrators made the comedic scenes come alive & I laughed out loud more than once. 😂
My heart thumps in my chest just from seeing her. My head spins in disbelief that I can kiss her now anytime I want, fastening me to this moment, to the desire to see it last forever...
How am I supposed to function like a normal human being when I have a goddess with nothing underneath her T-shirt standing before me.
Should I have looked again? No. Do I regret it? No. I mean, look at him. Wonders of the world are meant to be admired. It’s actually ridiculous that a man existing in this little town of ours can be that attractive, funny, charming, ugh. He’s all the things. How is that fair?While this is the 2nd book in the series, there isn't much crossover between the stories. As someone who has enormous amounts of bookish fomo, trust me when I tell you, you can totally pick up this story without reading book 1, & won't be lost in the slightest. Aside from getting Summer's story (which is very cute), there's a teensy bit of teasing this book's couple's backstory in XOXO, Summer (book 1), but otherwise, this story is wholly their own.
As if winning all the titles in high school from prom king to athlete of the year wasn’t enough. Getting a full-ride scholarship to college and winning some fancy architecture award everyone in town was praising him for wasn’t enough. Nope, he still chooses to put his life on the line to help others and volunteers regularly in the community. And on top of all that, he gets blessed looking like, well, looking like him, too? Cheez-Its on a cracker.
I thought it was cruel to have the guy who hurt my younger self not even remember me. But it’s a real bite in the ass that he turned out looking like a GQ model. Does his fortune have no bounds, for Pete’s sake?
Salt in the wound...
Despite my better judgment, I look his way. Good gracious . . . Is he serious with this? He’s been shirtless all day today, just like he was yesterday. Even at the hospital, he managed to hang around in the gown. But adding water, rolling over those ab muscles, gives me a whole new perspective on the four, six, eight situation he has going on in his midsection. Is he even human at this point?
Sucking in a breath, I pull the door wide open. “Whoa. It’s huge.”
“I’m a big guy.”
“That you are, but I’m referring to the shower...”
"...this time with you has watered a garden inside me that had long died. There were weeds that needed pulling and vines that had to be cut back to reveal new growth. I feel alive again because of you, Lieutenant. And look at us grocery shopping together like we do it all the time. I could have never predicted it. Things are changing for the better, and it’s all because I took this job with you.”
If she was trying to win me over, she did it back when I was in the hospital. But hearing that I might have helped her as much as she has me, this woman just stole my heart. “And you call me charming. You got some good lines and moves, too, Nurse.”
“They’re not lines.” She taps me on the nose. “I only speak the truth to you.”