Stand To

Evelyn Bell came to England for one year.

One year to teach. One year to build a life that belonged entirely to her. One year before she was supposed to return home to Georgia.

She never expected five-year-old Josephine Hale.

And she certainly never expected Josie's father.

Sergeant Christopher Hale is home on a short break from deployment, determined to make up for every school pickup, bedtime, and birthday he has missed. He is controlled, intimidating, fiercely devoted to his daughter...and carrying memories from the Royal Marines that refuse to stay buried.

Evelyn knows what it means to be the child waiting for someone who may never come back. Christopher knows what it means to leave the people you love behind.

Neither of them intends to become attached.

But somewhere between purple unicorn drawings, disastrous birthday planning, late-night baking, military training, and a little girl who adores them both, Miss Bell becomes Evelyn.

And Christopher begins to realize that home may not be a place at all.

But loving a man whose life requires him to leave means learning how to wait.

And loving a woman who was never meant to stay means Christopher must decide whether to keep preparing for the day he loses her...

or finally give her something to come home to.