Adventure isin Captain Hudson Miller’s blood. For the past ten years, he's spent his days in the sky, serving asa pilot for the Army. But where adventure called him away, something—someone—is calling him home. On post-deployment leave, he escapes to the one place he hasn’t been since he enlisted:Havenbrook, Mississippi. Hometown of his momma’s peach cobbler, enough memories to last a lifetime, and the only girl who ever left an imprint on his heart.
Mackenna Haven thought she'd have her life figured out by now. Instead, she's a twenty-seven-year-old college drop out who works at her soon-to-be brother-in-law's bar and lives on her parents' land. No husband orkids to her name. Not even a consistent weekend booty call. She's been pretending she's happy working dead-end jobs in an even deader-end town, but she can't stop thinking she was meant for more than this.
After a childhood as best friends and a single weekend exploring more, Mackenna and Hudson haven't seen each other in ten years. But they made a pact that long ago weekend, and Hudson's coming to make good on his promise. Except he walked away from her once already, and she's not interested in opening her heart and allowing him a second chance at destruction.
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If one thing made Mackenna Haven feel like she was a child again, it was visiting her daddy at work. Except…she wasn’t exactly visiting him. In fact, she normally did everything she could toavoidit. But with her sister and one of her best friends working at town hall where the mayor spent all his time, it made trekking past his office nearly unavoidable.
Usually, she didn’t have a problem sneaking in. She’d long since established a routine to make this as easy as possible. And by as easy as possible, she, of course, meant no dad within viewing radius. Most people might feel bad about dodging their fathers, but Mac wasn’t most people, and she could only assume those people didn’t have a daddy like Richard Haven.
Luck wasn’t on her side today, though, because some dumbass had locked her normal avoidance entrance—the back door no one was supposed to use unless in case of emergency. But if avoiding her father wasn’t an emergency, she didn’t know what was.
She’d nearly gotten past his door when he bellowed from inside. “Mac! What’re you doin’ sneakin’ on by? Don’t be rude. Get your butt in here and say hi to your daddy.”
Mac froze, her head dropping down between her shoulders as she sagged in defeat.
Okay, so her father wasn’tthatbad. He’d never abused them—physically, anyway, though his words sometimes left a lot to be desired—and neither she nor her three sisters had ever wanted for anything material. They’d always had a (large and a bit ostentatious) roof over their heads, a spread of food fit for a king, courtesy of their momma or gran and their amazing cooking, and only designer labels to grace their bodies. Because heaven forbid a Haven wear anything from Walmart. But if there was one person in the world who made Mac feel the smallest, it was her daddy.
And if there was one thing Mac hated most in the world, it was feeling small.
“Hey, Daddy,” Mac said as she entered his office. She waved to Sally, her father’s newest assistant, who was furiously typing away—no doubt from some “urgent” matter Richard Haven had only deigned important enough to give her ten minutes prior.
Ever since Mac’s eldest sister, Rory, had left town hall to focus on King Haven Construction and Design—her new business with her boyfriend, Nash King—things had gone to shit in the mayor’s office. No one was supposed to know Richard had gone throughfourassistants in the past three months, but this was Havenbrook, and secrets didn’t stay secrets for long.
“What’re you doin’ here in the middle of the day?” he asked. “Don’t you have work or something?”
Work or somethingwas how her daddy had been referring to any kind of job Mac had had since…well, since she’d come back from Mississippi State mid-sophomore year, having flunked all her classes. And having absolutely zero desire to go back.
Instead of telling him she’d be working later that evening at The Willow Tree—or reminding him that she was a grown-ass woman capable of watching after her own schedule—she just said, “Nope.”
And that was it. Mac had learned a long time ago, it was best to stick to as few words as possible around her father. Less ammunition for him to use against her later.
He grumbled something under his breath that Mac didn’t catch. If it was anything like the jabs he’d been taking at her for the past eight years, it wasn’t something she was particularly interested in hearing anyway.
“How’s the new assistant?” she asked, head tipped to where Sally furiously shuffled papers, her glasses sliding down her nose and gray-streaked hair disheveled. It was eleven thirty in the morning, and the poor woman looked like she’d just spent three hours running through an obstacle course rather than sitting behind a desk in the mayor’s office.
Daddy didn’t even spare Sally a glance as he tapped a pen on his desk. “Dunno if this one’ll last.”
“Didn’t you say that about the last three?”
“Well, it was the truth, wasn’t it?”
Mac laughed. “Better be careful, or you’re gonna run out of eligible workers in Havenbrook. You’ll have to start pilfering from Parkersville.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Plenty of folks right here in Havenbrook would love to work for me. Just have to find the right one.”
Ah, yes. That elusiveright one. Truth be told, her daddy had been lucky for the past ten years or so. His former assistant, Gloria, had been a hard worker who’d put up with just enough of his shit to make her life easier, but not so much that she was a pushover. Trouble was, Gloria went on maternity leave last year and then decided to come back only part time. She and Rory had job-shared for months before Rory’d hightailed it out of dodge, too. But as of three months ago—right around the time Rory had left—Gloria’s husband had gotten a promotion with a fat pay raise, enabling her to quit entirely.
And poor old Dick was left with no one in their right mind wanting to work for the surly, antiquated bastard. Not that Mac could blame them.
“All right. Well, I’ll let you get back to…” Mac leaned over her father’s desk to peer at his screen. Solitaire. She barely restrained a snort. “Your important work,” she finished. “I’m meetin’ Will and Avery for lunch.”
“Y’all have fun. Tell Will to stop by when she gets back. I have some urgent town matters to discuss with her.”
Urgent matters, her ass. If her sister weren’t such a rule follower, Mac would ply her with liquor over lunch just to ease the pain of an unnecessary meeting with their father wherein he’d, no doubt, assert his importance.
“Will do. Bye, Daddy.” She returned his wave and strolled out of his office and across the hall, collapsing into the chair in front of her sister Willow’s assistant’s desk. Avery managed to always be pulled together in a way that made Mac feel underdressed no matter the circumstances. How the woman could make a ponytail look professional, Mac would never know.
