A Little Bit Older

Leah Diaz was the girl who had it all planned-straight A's, track medals, and a future everyone believed in. At fifteen, she fell in love with Malachi Thompson: kind, charming, and safe. At sixteen, one quiet Friday afternoon changed everything when a test in her bathroom rewrote her life.

Seven years later, Leah is twenty-three, a single mother to her daughter Jaime, and a 911 operator who has learned how to stay calm in everyone else's emergencies-even when her own past still echoes. Then she meets Evan Buckley, and for the first time since that moment years ago, Leah wonders if she's allowed to want more than survival.