He called my life "settling for mediocrity." Now he's back, and I'm not falling for it again.

Micah Swain has built a good life in Juniper Bluff. His cozy bookstore is the heart of the community, his friends keep him grounded, and he's learned to be content with what he has. He definitely doesn't think about Cooper Brumbaugh anymore—the brilliant college boyfriend who called his dreams of coming home "settling for mediocrity" before choosing a high-powered legal career in New York.

So when Cooper walks into his bookstore years later, burned out and broken from the life he chose, Micah's first instinct is to protect his heart. Been there, done that, have the scars to prove it.

But Cooper isn't the same man who dismissed everything Micah valued. He's traded his corner office for a rented cabin, his cynicism for genuine remorse, and his dismissive attitude for the kind of patience that comes from learning hard lessons. He came to Juniper Bluff specifically because Micah once called it magical—and he's finally ready to see what he was too blind to appreciate before.

As Cooper slowly integrates into the community Micah loves, proving through actions instead of words that he's changed, Micah finds his carefully maintained walls crumbling. Between late-night bookstore conversations, found family interference, and the kind of chemistry that never really died, second chances start feeling less dangerous and more like destiny.

But when Cooper's old life comes calling with an offer too good to refuse, Micah has to is Cooper's transformation real, or is history about to repeat itself?

A heartwarming small-town M/M romance

Second-chance love after years of growthProtective found family who remember the first heartbreakSlow-burn reconnection with earned trustHeat 3-4 (steamy open-door romance)Christmas Return is the third book in the Juniper Bluff Christmas Collection—a series of interconnected standalone romances set in a charming Colorado mountain town. Each book features a different couple, complete with holiday magic and guaranteed happy endings.

116 pages