The Bachelor Contract

May Peterson has just become a mother, and she has come back to Maple Hill, the small town where she grew up. She has eight weeks to repair her childhood home and sell it. The plan is simple: see her best friend again, then leave a painful past behind for good.

Maple Hill is warm and close-knit, and avoiding anyone there is close to impossible. That includes Austin Merrick, the boy next door. May has given up on love, yet his smile still affects her.

Austin knew May as a kid mostly as his sister's best friend. They grew closer over the years, trading late-night talks over cheddar popcorn. Now she is back with her baby, and the baby wins him over fast.

Austin has a rule, though. After watching what heartbreak can do to a person, he and his brother agreed never to fall in love: no marriage and no kids. When Austin starts helping May renovate her old home, the attraction between them makes that agreement hard to keep.

This is a small-town contemporary romance with a friends-to-lovers thread, a ticking deadline and a light, warm tone.