The Handyman Next Door: A Sweet Small-Town Romance

My worst mistake just moved in next door.

I ended things with my first love. Now Eli Rivers is my grumpy, off-limits contractor—older, broader, and holding the toolbox that could rebuild everything I broke.

He’s also the single dad whose little girl hands me stickers and calls me her favorite grown-up, which my heart has no defenses against.

We’re restoring the town’s new reading room because I signed the grant that hired him. Every time he steadies a ladder, my chest lights up.

He says we’ll keep it strictly professional; my heart never got the memo. Somewhere between sawdust, late-night plans, and his daughter curling into my side at story time, I fall for both of them.

Then one selfish, very public spectacle shatters the town’s trust and puts Eli, his little girl, and the entire project on the line.

If I can’t prove I’ve changed, especially to his daughter, I’ll lose the one thing I’ve always a place in their family and a love that finally stays.