X+e

Essence Knox has spent twenty years teaching math at Hardwood High and raising two daughters on her own. With the kids grown and the house she built her life in finally up for sale, she expects the next chapter to be quiet. Then Xavier Sharpe joins the staff — retired military, new to teaching, and steady in a way that unsettles her.

Xavier doesn't push. He notices her, shows up consistently, and makes it hard for Essence to keep pretending she doesn't feel the pull between them. But she's been burned before, and opening up again means risking a version of loss she's spent years avoiding.

The first book in the Teachers of Hardwood High series, X+e is a slow-building workplace romance about two people finding each other later in life.