Storm (Ridgeline Station)

XANDER
For ten years, I’ve led Ridgeline Station the same way.
Do the job. Don’t make it personal.
Then Colin Bradford arrives in the middle of a storm.
He’s the new medic. Former Navy corpsman. Calm when everyone else is falling apart. Impossible to intimidate.
Our first meeting happens while he’s naked in the communal shower.
I should be able to put the whole thing behind me.
He looks me in the eye, takes everything I throw at him, and tells me when I’m wrong.
The worst part? He’s usually right.
A week later, I find him sitting in my chair, smiling like he belongs there. I walk in to set him straight.
Instead, I notice the freckles across his nose and forget every word.
I’m forty-two. I was married to a woman. I’ve never looked at a man this way.
Until Colin Bradford became my storm.

COLIN
Everyone warned me about Captain Xander.
Grumpy. Stubborn. Married to the job.
Nobody mentioned the man underneath. The one who’d walk into any storm to bring a stranger home, but won’t let anyone do the same for him.
At first, I think he’s watching me because he doesn’t trust me.
Then I catch the way his eyes linger.
He hasn’t figured out why yet. I have.
And making the unshakable Captain Xander lose his composure might be my new favorite part of the job.
I’ve spent my life moving from one posting to the next. Everything I own fits into two bags, and Ridgeline was supposed to be another temporary stop.
Now it feels like the first place in years I might belong.
And Xander feels like the reason I might stay.

Storm is a slow-burn M/M romance featuring grumpy/sunshine, first-time-with-a-man bi-awakening, forced proximity, found family, and one unforgettable wilderness search and rescue crew. Book one in the Ridgeline Station series. Standalone with an HEA.