The summer heat In Western Georgia was the kind that didn’t just press against your skin—it crawled down your back, curled into your waistband, and made everything feel a little slower, a little stickier, a little more dangerous. Maddie was…
The sky was overcast. The wind moved through the trees in lazy waves. The scent of cedar, sawdust, and slow-burning pine logs drifted from the chimney. Jack was in the workshop, shirt off, hands dirty, shaping a cedar bench with…
It was the kind of morning that pretended to be innocent. The sun beamed down softly over the manicured streets, kids laughed in the distance from the community park, sprinklers hissed gently over front lawns. Grocery bags rustled. Coffee steamed…
She watched it happen. At the bonfire’s final embers, the couples—four people she had tested and guided—had leaned just a little too far. Dani let her hand drift down Maddie’s thigh before thinking again. Mark kissed Liana instead of Maddie…
Evening in the courtyard.String lights cast golden pools across the patio. The soothing thrum of the surf drifted uphill. A breeze stirred as Maddie slipped from the guest suite, hair still slightly damp from a late-afternoon swim, wearing a black…