Fire & Whiskey (Diamond Creek #4)

Twenty years is a long time to live with regret.

Stephen “Popeye” Hartley knows that better than most. He spent two decades searching for the daughter who was taken from his life, only to find her grown, pregnant, and building a future he never got to be part of.

Now he finally has a chance to be her father.

He also has a journal full of answers he isn’t sure he wants.

Every page forces Stephen to face the woman he loved, the choices she made, and the years he can never get back. But while the past is pulling him under, one woman keeps dragging him back to the present.

Trudy Wheeler has spent most of her life taking care of everyone else. Her family. Her bakery. Her town. After love, loss, and disappointment, she has no interest in handing her heart to a cocky old biker who flirts too much, pushes too hard, and looks at her like she’s the only woman in the world.

But Stephen is nothing like the men who walked away.

He stays.
He fights.
He shows up.

And somehow, between bear claws, black coffee, old grief, and second chances, Trudy starts to believe love might not be done with her after all.

They aren’t young. They aren’t untouched by life. They know exactly how badly love can hurt.

But sometimes the best kind of love comes later.

After the fire.

After the whiskey.

After two battered hearts finally decide they’re still brave enough to burn.