Big & Rough Mountain Man's Passion
(2026)(A book in the Big & Rough Mountain Men series)
A Story by Sara Hazel
BEAU
Three years.
Three years of driving down that mountain every Thursday morning for a cup of coffee I don't need, poured by a woman I can't stop thinking about. Three years of the same booth, the same two-second look, the same careful distance because I know what I am. I grew up watching what a man's wanting can do to a woman, and I swore I'd never be the weight somebody else had to carry.
So I sit in that booth. I don't speak. I don't ask. I watch Lena Walker move through her diner like she was built for it, and I drive home to my cabin alone, and I tell myself that's enough.
It was enough.
Until her landlord calls about a broken well on the east road, and I already know whose house it is before he gives me the address.
I'm in her yard now. She leaves me sandwiches on the porch rail. I hear her voice through the kitchen window, her bare feet on cold wood.
And now I cross that porch, put my hand on her jaw, and ruin every rule I built my life around.
And when I finally have her...
soft and warm and telling me she's mine...
I do the only thing I know how to do.
I leave.
It's the worst mistake of my life. And I've got exactly two weeks to figure out how to fix it before I lose her for good.LENA
I know his coffee order before he sits down.
I've known it for three years.
Oh God.
Beau Calloway, the quiet mountain man who fills my back booth every Thursday and looks at me like he's trying to memorize something. I've told myself it doesn't mean anything. I've got a bookstore to save for, tips to count, and no business daydreaming about a man who's never once asked me how I am.
I'm good at useful. I'm good at fine. I'm good at folding myself small enough to fit the life I've been handed.
Then my well breaks. And my landlord sends him.
Now Beau is in my yard. He's at my kitchen table, too big for my chair, eating the lunch I pretended not to make extra of.
He finally kisses me on my own porch and I let him see every part of me I've spent my whole life hiding.
And when I wake up the next morning and he walks away without saying a single word...
I tell myself I always knew this was how it would end.
I'm wrong about that. I'm wrong about a lot of things.
Starting with what kind of woman I actually am.
What's inside:
Three years.
Three years of driving down that mountain every Thursday morning for a cup of coffee I don't need, poured by a woman I can't stop thinking about. Three years of the same booth, the same two-second look, the same careful distance because I know what I am. I grew up watching what a man's wanting can do to a woman, and I swore I'd never be the weight somebody else had to carry.
So I sit in that booth. I don't speak. I don't ask. I watch Lena Walker move through her diner like she was built for it, and I drive home to my cabin alone, and I tell myself that's enough.
It was enough.
Until her landlord calls about a broken well on the east road, and I already know whose house it is before he gives me the address.
I'm in her yard now. She leaves me sandwiches on the porch rail. I hear her voice through the kitchen window, her bare feet on cold wood.
And now I cross that porch, put my hand on her jaw, and ruin every rule I built my life around.
And when I finally have her...
soft and warm and telling me she's mine...
I do the only thing I know how to do.
I leave.
It's the worst mistake of my life. And I've got exactly two weeks to figure out how to fix it before I lose her for good.LENA
I know his coffee order before he sits down.
I've known it for three years.
Oh God.
Beau Calloway, the quiet mountain man who fills my back booth every Thursday and looks at me like he's trying to memorize something. I've told myself it doesn't mean anything. I've got a bookstore to save for, tips to count, and no business daydreaming about a man who's never once asked me how I am.
I'm good at useful. I'm good at fine. I'm good at folding myself small enough to fit the life I've been handed.
Then my well breaks. And my landlord sends him.
Now Beau is in my yard. He's at my kitchen table, too big for my chair, eating the lunch I pretended not to make extra of.
He finally kisses me on my own porch and I let him see every part of me I've spent my whole life hiding.
And when I wake up the next morning and he walks away without saying a single word...
I tell myself I always knew this was how it would end.
I'm wrong about that. I'm wrong about a lot of things.
Starting with what kind of woman I actually am.
What's inside:
- A broody, obsessed mountain man who's been quietly, desperately in love for three whole years
A curvy small-town heroine who finally lets herself take up every inch of space she deserves
One porch kiss, one unforgettable first time, and one kitchen that may not survive the reunion
A grand gesture in front of the entire diner (and Alvin Pickett, who will absolutely tell everyone)
A ten-years-later epilogue with babies, a bookstore, and an hour alone in the back room
Standalone instalove novella. No cheating. No cliffhangers. Sticky-sweet HEA guaranteed.
One-click your way up the mountain.
Genre: Romance
Used availability for Sara Hazel's Big & Rough Mountain Man's Passion