Sometimes you have to risk everything to find where you belong…
Joanie Morris got herself fired on purpose.
Five years of defending corporations against the consequences of their own behavior had worn thin, so she seduced a junior partner onto the copy machine during business hours, made as much noise as she could manage, and let HR handle the rest. The sex was disappointing. The exit was not.
So two weeks before Christmas she points her car at the Cascades, aiming to spend the holidays with her best friend and work out what comes next.
What she finds is Greg Tyler — community center director, built like a man who chops his own firewood, and possibly the only person in Washington State entirely uninterested in being impressed by her.
She also finds a town with a problem.
Alpine Ridge is unincorporated. No budget, no protections, and nothing standing between it and the developers who'd like to turn the whole valley into a tourist trap.
Every attempt to change that has been voted down by the town council.
Which is interesting, because Joanie is a lawyer. And unincorporated towns don't have town councils.
Proving it means taking on men who've run this place on a technicality for decades — and for Greg, going up against the family he left behind to get here. Neither of them can do it alone. So they don't.
Joanie came up the mountain looking for a distraction. What she found was a fight worth having, a town worth keeping, and a man who stands beside her instead of getting out of her way.
She's spent her whole life taking risks that cost her nothing. This one might.
