Before the Snow Melts

How close can I get without getting hurt?

They say time dulls all pain, and I'm stubborn enough to keep believing it.

After narrowly escaping a sexual assault and watching my life fall apart at home, my main goal is to just keep going. I work, save up for my own patisserie, and hope that the fear of touch and male intimacy will one day stop making decisions for me.

Unfortunately, instead of finding peace, I've just added another complication to my life.

A part-time job at Tristan Kerrigan's café. The man who saw me at the worst moment of my life. A reserved café owner who keeps people at the same distance I keep from anything that could hurt me again. But something starts happening between us very quickly, something I definitely didn't expect.

With the arrival of his family and an unexpected trip to Scotland, I'm realising that this winter will be neither calm nor simple. And if there's one thing I've learned over the past year, it's that disaster always finds me.

This time, it just looks a little more attractive.