Prologue
Ethan
Sunlight spilled across the green in front of City Hall as Ethan looked up from his book, just in time to see the librarian walking up to the front doors again.
His phone buzzed. He glanced down at, first, a photo of his slightly “chonky” orange tabby cat flopped on her back, paws kicking at a catnip toy stitched to look like a smiling avocado toast, then the name that flashed across. It was Carl, the foreman, already texting about plans for the next project. Ethan rolled his eyes. The man always did this—planting seeds about the crew’s next move too far in advance. Sometimes it felt like Carl started talking about the next project the moment Ethan managed to update his address with the post office. He’d only been in Autumn Ridge for a few months, but the way Carl talked, you’d think their bags were already packed for the next job.
After a few years of this cycle, Ethan realized why he didn’t like it. At first, Carl’s communications had felt like job security. There was always another construction site that needed them. But now that Ethan was in his thirties, he wasn’t so sure he liked feeling obligated to leave a place before he’d even had a chance to get to know it. Carl’s reminders made him keep his distance from the locals, stay superficial, and never feel settled—just likehis entire life had been up to this point. Moving had become second nature. Staying felt risky, like giving fate too big a target.
But Autumn Ridge was different. The town was working its way under his skin before he even realized it. He actually enjoyed the quiet pace and small-town predictability it offered—strong black coffee at Minka’s Café, spotting Mayor Pennington on her early-morning jog, people remembering his name even when he wasn’t sure he’d stayed long enough to deserve it. No one made fun of his old truck, and he’d even made a friend—Leo March, one of the firefighters—who’d come to Ethan’s rescue after his cat climbed from the second-story balcony of his rented townhome into a nearby tree and got too scared to come back inside. He swore that had never happened before, and he appreciated Leo for not judging him for it or saying it was a waste of time. Ethan could certainly name a few cities they’d lived where that would have been the response.
A part of him kept saying he should just stick to what he knew and trusted. Don’t get settled. Keep moving. Go where the work is. But there was something different here that drew him in and had been gnawing at the back of his head since he’d arrived.
Then one day Leo found himself stranded and needing the only toilet in his apartment repaired on short notice. It wasn’t much to Ethan, just a toilet tank rebuild. Valve, flapper, flush valve—all of it had to come out. But they made kits for that kind of thing if you knew what you were doing. Still, Leo was impressed with how quickly Ethan got it fixed and asked him where he’d learned to do that. Ethan found himself telling Leo what his mother had always said about him—he was a guy who knew a little about a lot of things. The rest he could just figure out or find online.
To him, repairs were like cooking. Sometimes you had to figure it out as you went, testing along the way to reach theperfect result. Other times he knew that if he didn’t follow the “recipe” step by step, it would never get fixed.
“Autumn Ridge needs a guy like that,” Leo told him.
Next thing Ethan knew, he was getting calls from strangers who’d gotten his number from Leo, asking if he happened to know how to repair this or that. The construction site days were long, but this work felt different—personal, neighborly. He rebuilt mailboxes, fixed porch railings, and even figured out how to retrofit a pocket door into an existing wall. He appreciated the recognition and thanks he got from the people Leo sent his way, not to mention the autonomy. No Carl breathing down his neck. Sometimes the pay was great, too, and some people had even tipped on top of his fee. It got him thinking how, if he just found a way to make this handyman side hustle into a legitimate business, he might find a way to stay in Autumn Ridge. And as the thought became more tangible, he started thinking about the future in terms he’d never used before.When the snow hits…Next spring, I’ll …
His mind pulled back to the quiet morning Carl had nearly ruined for him. The crew was scheduled to pack up by year’s end, but Ethan wasn’t sure he wanted to leave this time. He didn’t reply to the text, choosing to savor his coffee and a few pages of his book before the day’s dust and sweat arrived.
Then he saw her. Mauve cardigan and polka dot skirt, arms full of folders, waves of dark black hair that framed her long, slender neck. She looked like something out of a movie. She disappeared behind the library front doors and reappeared moments later with a bag in her hands. She knelt by the bushes near the steps and shook the bag. At first it looked like she was feeding squirrels, and then a gray cat slunk out from under the bench, followed by a second, and a third, and more, until she was surrounded.
He put his coffee down and leaned closer, peering across the street. She wasn’t just feeding them. She was talking to them, sweetly, like they were old friends. She laughed when one of them pawed at her skirt, checked her watch but stayed for a few minutes longer anyway. Then she set down the rest of the food just far enough back for them to feel safe, offering up soft mewling noises as she slipped back inside.
The sight rooted him to the spot. The hammering in his chest didn’t feel like attraction, even though that was there. It felt like recognition, like watching something right itself that had been off-balance for too long.
Ethan sat there for several minutes, in awe of what he had just witnessed and trying to pin down how it made him feel. It was like a light bulb switched on the moment he saw her. When she disappeared it started to fade, and he wanted that feeling back. He’d seen a lot of pretty women before. But like Autumn Ridge itself, this resident, likely a librarian, had suddenly thrown him off course.
He didn’t see her for over a week after that. Against his better judgment, he got a library card. With all the travel, he’d been an avid e-book user since e-readers were invented. But visiting the library meant he just might catch another glimpse of the woman who’d been feeding the strays outside. Surely she was an employee.
Instead, a young librarian named Lucy, who seemed really flustered in his presence, took his information and got him set up with a library card. Ethan walked through the stacks, lingering, not only to pick out a few good books but also hoping he’d find the beautiful woman he’d seen open the library that day. A part of him wanted to ask Lucy if she knew who the woman was, but he was afraid that would be too obvious. He collected his books, checked them out, and thought of a plan as his truck puttered back to the row of townhomes.
He started getting his coffee earlier each workday just to figure out what time she arrived. He told himself it was nothing—just curiosity, just an attractive woman with a love for cats—until he was sitting at his favorite table, coffee steaming in his hand, and saw the mauve cardigan appear again. He smiled before he even realized it. But he didn’t know what more he could do, despite narrowing in on her routine. He’d feel like an ass if he called out to her. From across the street no less. That’s the kind of thing that could get him blacklisted by the library staff, and that was the last thing he wanted.
A few times, during breaks on the City Hall work, he glanced back at the library windows and caught light spilling across her silhouette as she arranged books inside. But she never seemed to look out the windows at the same time he was looking in.
He told himself it was fine. If he couldn’t make this side gig into a business by year’s end, he’d be gone anyway.
But that thought landed heavy in his chest. Who was he kidding? He didn’t want to be on the move. He wanted to be here—with her.
And he had no idea what to do about it except keep showing up.
Chapter 1
Cali Jacobs knew the Cat Distribution System was at it again when her phone lit up with a string of texts.
Alert!Kitten spotted at trash bins outside the convenience store. Cute. Fast. Couldn’t catch it. Let’s keep our eyes open, team.
Saw it prancing down the sidewalk outside the cafe this morning. Gotta be a Maine Coon with that fluffy tail. If they hadn’t just brought out my pancakes, I would’ve caught it.
Promises, Lynne. Promises.
More like priorities, Minka. They were YOUR pancakes. No more tips for you.
Guys! I saw it, too. Post office around noon, chasing a squirrel across the street. Kitty gets around! Anyone notice if it has a collar or tag?
