I condemned her bakery on a Tuesday. She has three weeks to open before the festival. I have three weeks to make sure she never leaves.
Gideon
I left the firehouse in Norfolk to cut stone, trading a ladder truck for a chisel and hearths that outlive the houses they're set in.
I still run the volunteer fire company here, which makes me the man who condemns buildings for violations. Hers failed on every line, and I found her up a ladder in the dark, fixing things herself before anyone could see it was broken.
Ursula Sark is all soft curves and exhaustion after spending twenty-three years making another pastry chef's name famous. I know that kind of tired. It's the kind you carry alone until something snaps.
She spent her last dollar on a dead bakery. Every hotel on the mountain is booked, and her back seat is packed with baking supplies. My house is a mile up the ridge, and she isn't sleeping anywhere else.
Three weeks working side by side before the summer festival starts. My hands build the oven while hers bake things worth standing in line for.
The whole town watches me claim her. I bring the coffee. I lay the brick. When a man calls her bakery a cute little project, I tell him whose oven I'm building and who she belongs to.
She's got twenty-one days until the festival. She thinks I'm moving too fast. I'm just making sure she has somewhere that's truly hers.
Ursula
I came to Granitehart Ridge for a summer festival that could save the building I bought off three photographs.
I didn't expect the fireman who condemned it to carry my stand mixer up his own stairs, or to bring me coffee before I admit I need it.
With Gideon Martel, I don't have to hold it all together. He builds. He feeds me. He won't pick up his fork until I've picked up mine.
So I write him an invoice with thirty-day terms, because a bill is something I can pay off and then survive driving away from. He folds it into his shirt pocket and cooks for me instead.
Then my old city job calls with a promotion and a start date next month. It's everything I built a career on, arriving one week too late.
Leaving is the practical choice. Staying means trusting the only safe thing I've ever had. There's a custom granite hearth in my bakery now. That's when I understand: he wasn't hoping I'd choose him. He already knew.
Tropes You'll Love
Possessive alpha stonemason
Ex-firefighter protector hero
Curvy burned-out pastry chef heroine
Instalove (he falls first, claims hard)
He condemns her bakery meet-cute
Nowhere to sleep, his house, one bed
Three-week summer festival countdown
He builds her a wood-fired oven by hand
Acts-of-service devotion and competence
He won't take her money
Body positive worship and praise
Size gap
Later in life
Public small-town claiming
Low-angst, steamy comfort read
Guaranteed forever HEA
This steamy escape delivers instalove, instant obsession, no cliffhangers, and no cheating. Safe, swoony, and just the right length for a satisfying binge.
What to expect from Tiffany Bloom's stories
My stories bring the steam and the heart, full of feeling, a little sweet, and a little addictive. You'll always get a safe, satisfying love story with a guaranteed HEA every time.
Genre: Romance
Gideon
I left the firehouse in Norfolk to cut stone, trading a ladder truck for a chisel and hearths that outlive the houses they're set in.
I still run the volunteer fire company here, which makes me the man who condemns buildings for violations. Hers failed on every line, and I found her up a ladder in the dark, fixing things herself before anyone could see it was broken.
Ursula Sark is all soft curves and exhaustion after spending twenty-three years making another pastry chef's name famous. I know that kind of tired. It's the kind you carry alone until something snaps.
She spent her last dollar on a dead bakery. Every hotel on the mountain is booked, and her back seat is packed with baking supplies. My house is a mile up the ridge, and she isn't sleeping anywhere else.
Three weeks working side by side before the summer festival starts. My hands build the oven while hers bake things worth standing in line for.
The whole town watches me claim her. I bring the coffee. I lay the brick. When a man calls her bakery a cute little project, I tell him whose oven I'm building and who she belongs to.
She's got twenty-one days until the festival. She thinks I'm moving too fast. I'm just making sure she has somewhere that's truly hers.
Ursula
I came to Granitehart Ridge for a summer festival that could save the building I bought off three photographs.
I didn't expect the fireman who condemned it to carry my stand mixer up his own stairs, or to bring me coffee before I admit I need it.
With Gideon Martel, I don't have to hold it all together. He builds. He feeds me. He won't pick up his fork until I've picked up mine.
So I write him an invoice with thirty-day terms, because a bill is something I can pay off and then survive driving away from. He folds it into his shirt pocket and cooks for me instead.
Then my old city job calls with a promotion and a start date next month. It's everything I built a career on, arriving one week too late.
Leaving is the practical choice. Staying means trusting the only safe thing I've ever had. There's a custom granite hearth in my bakery now. That's when I understand: he wasn't hoping I'd choose him. He already knew.
Tropes You'll Love
Possessive alpha stonemason
Ex-firefighter protector hero
Curvy burned-out pastry chef heroine
Instalove (he falls first, claims hard)
He condemns her bakery meet-cute
Nowhere to sleep, his house, one bed
Three-week summer festival countdown
He builds her a wood-fired oven by hand
Acts-of-service devotion and competence
He won't take her money
Body positive worship and praise
Size gap
Later in life
Public small-town claiming
Low-angst, steamy comfort read
Guaranteed forever HEA
This steamy escape delivers instalove, instant obsession, no cliffhangers, and no cheating. Safe, swoony, and just the right length for a satisfying binge.
What to expect from Tiffany Bloom's stories
My stories bring the steam and the heart, full of feeling, a little sweet, and a little addictive. You'll always get a safe, satisfying love story with a guaranteed HEA every time.
Genre: Romance