STAY

**Ava Maxwell thought she had it all figured out.** The perfect best-friend-turned-boyfriend, a loving family with deep roots in a picture-perfect small town, and dreams big enough to light up the stars. But when Kyle breaks her heart with a "we mistook it for love" speech and her father is suddenly arrested for abuse of power, Ava's carefully constructed world begins to collapse. With her pride wounded and their finances shaken, Ava takes a job at a café, hides her heartbreak behind jokes and lattes, and tries to keep her younger brother from selling her to the neighbor for toys.

**Noah Miller doesn't have time for distractions.** At 24, he's a police officer carrying the weight of a father's scandalous legacy, a family that looks to him for stability, and a personal code that leaves little room for chaos. But when a girl with defiant eyes and a stubborn streak the size of the county shows up in his path-literally-he finds himself drawn into her orbit more than he ever planned.

**In a town where everyone knows your story before you tell it, Ava and Noah are two people learning how to write their own endings.** But love isn't easy when betrayal is still fresh, family secrets are buried deep, and some people just refuse to let go.