Faking it with the Single Dad: A Sweet Small Town Grumpy Sunshine Romance

I’m fake-dating my neighbor. Rule - Don’t Fall. I keep my life quiet.

I spade and neuter strays. Prescribe furball medication. Pack lunches and backpacks for my kids.

Then, sunshine tornado, Nina Hudson, crashes into my clinic. She's dragging a Great Dane who enters like he pays rent. He makes my exam table rethink its life choices. When I’m done, she thanks me like she sees how much I care. That kind of understanding is harder to ignore than chaos.

The small-town gossip has already decided we’re together. So I propose fake dating. For the kids. For the town. For stability.

Simple. Temporary. Safe.

Then, at dinner, Nina smiles, and my heart goes soft. I catch her watching me like she wishes this was real.

But when I abandon her in front of the whole town, I’ve gone too far.

I've got to fight for her, or go back to the life I built to survive, but without the woman who makes me want to live.