With her strict no-dating-within-the-department rule, Firefighter Lina Standish has a nickname in the Salem Hills Fire Department: Lina 'Standoffish'. And she likes it that way. Things on the job could get too complicated too fast when co-workers dated. So she embraced her nickname and kept everyone at arms' length.
But Firefighter Kevin Daly has had his eye on Standoffish ever since a locker room incident nearly a year earlier, and now he plans to break all her rules. With the help of his niece and a hot-air balloon, he gets Lina's attention and she agrees to "hang out" with Kevin as friends off duty, to take it slow and see where things go between them.
Then Lina's life is turned upside down by a surprise miracle who doesn't even have a name. Kevin's ready to step up, but is Lina?
Kay Springsteen learned about the meaning of love and happily ever after from her parents, who were true soul mates. Kay first began her romance with fiction when her mom read her Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. At about age 10, after she’d read all the interesting books she could find in the library, Kay decided to write the kinds of stories she enjoyed. She still believes in magic and real-life fairy tales, and the romance of life.
She currently lives in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains with her several adopted rescue dogs, with some of her family residing nearby. When she’s not cuddled up with a good romantic read, or writing one of her own, she enjoys photography, gardening, hiking in the mountains, spending time with grandbabies, and playing with her pups.