ROMANCE | SLOW BURN
Fresh Start
Can this widower find a fresh start in an old town? Or will his teenage son’s past ruin their future before they’ve even unpacked?
My son is out of control, and I’m out of answers.
“I’ll run away,” Hale says from the passenger seat of my truck. Everything we own has already been shipped to our new house. Everything Hale values is in his backpack — an album filled with photos of his mum, his laptop, and a small Christmas tree he took from her hospital room when she didn’t need it any longer.
“Christmas sux,” I said to the road, marveling again at how quickly the Australian bush had recovered from the firestorm only a couple of years ago. “Your aunty Flick is looking forward to having new neighbors.”
“Do I really have to go to her school and call her Miss Grainger?”
“Unless you want her partner to come over and kick your ass before signing you up for the Meringa Hawks Rugby League team.”
“Didn’t you warn him that I’m a delinquent and out to corrupt everything I touch?”
I indicated to turn just before Old Man Hobbs pub, slowing down to say, “I met your mother there. She came to town for the summer with her parents and I took one…
