Small Town Love

Nora Bright has been away from Kansas for four years. She studied in the UK, trained as a pastry cook, and came home ready to open a café of her own. She also came home swearing off men after a bad breakup abroad. She expected the same quiet little town she left. That isn't what she gets.

Her father's car business is booming. There are maids in the house, strange cars in the driveway, and one name everyone in town says in the same careful voice: Steve Adams. He is a billionaire, her father's investor and business partner, and, as Nora finds out too late, the rude stranger she collided with at the airport an hour earlier. She decides on the spot that she can't stand him.

Steve has let the whole town be afraid of him, and he never bothered to correct the stories. His own father was always at work and never around. Two years ago Steve inherited a fortune, learned quickly who only wanted a piece of it, and put up walls. Mr. Bright is the one person who treats him like family. Nobody else talks back to him. Then Nora does it within five minutes of meeting him, and he can't get her out of his head.

He turns up at her café on opening day. He tells her every business in town has to pitch to him. She turns down his money to his face and says she'd rather be broke than owe him anything. No one has ever refused Steve before.

The fighting doesn't last long. One clogged sink, one cup of coffee, and one very good pastry later, Nora and Steve are sneaking around town and lying to her parents. In a town this small, gossip travels fast, and every closed door invites a rumor. Nora's mother notices she's glowing. Her father notices she never comes home. Steve keeps saying they should just come clean, and Nora keeps saying they can't, not while her father's approval and her café are both on the line. Her father made it clear he doesn't want her with a business partner. He would rather pick a husband for her himself. When he finds out what's really going on, he doesn't just object. He threatens to end the partnership and everything the two men have built together.

Now Nora has to choose between the man she loves, the father she adores, and the business she worked so hard to start. Steve has to decide how much he is willing to lose, and whether loving his mentor's daughter means losing the only father figure he has. And someone has been keeping a close eye on both of them.

Small Town Love is a contemporary romance told in alternating voices, mostly Nora's and Steve's, with one chapter from Mr. Bright himself. It is a story about family pressure, pride, and what it takes to stop hiding.

Content note: this book includes explicit sex scenes and strong language. It is written for adult readers.

About the author: Thoth Loving is new to the world of writing and has experienced small town love firsthand. This book is his way of sharing his ideas and experiences with readers and encouraging them to take a chance on small town love.