The Cowboy Next Door: A Small Town Single Parent Instalove Novella

He was the one man she shouldn’t want, and the only one who could save her.

Nora Calloway is running. With her young son, she escapes to a dusty Texas town, desperate to build a life far from the monster in her past. Love is a weakness she can’t afford, especially not with the stoic, blue-eyed cowboy next door whose hands make her think filthy, traitorous thoughts.

Jake Harlan is a widower haunted by ghosts. The last thing he needs is a complication like Nora, a guarded single mom whose wounded eyes make him ache with a forgotten hunger. But the attraction is too raw, too immediate to ignore. He sees the terror she’s hiding and feels an instinctive need to protect her.

When Nora’s abusive ex-husband resurfaces, threatening to rip her son away, Jake becomes her shield. He whispers that she's his. That he’ll keep her safe as he fills her completely. But as he breaks down her walls, Nora must decide if she can trust the one man who could either save her or shatter her for good.

This 16k novella is 80% heat and 20% plot with themes of single parents, neighbors-to-lovers, instalove, a protective hero, small-town romance, and healing wounded hearts.