Fixing the home can heal the heart—if you can find all the pieces.

Police officer Samuel Briggs is getting to know the people on his new, third-shift beat, but he’d prefer they not know too much about him—or the painful past that drove him away from New Mexico to start fresh in small-town Stratton, PA.

All he wants is peace, a manageable routine, and time to fix up his project home. There’s no room in his broken heart for a new relationship. It’s crowded with too many memories. But there’s something about the Dixie’s Cup short-order cook, who’s flirty one minute, distracted the next, that piques Sam’s interest.

Part-time cook, part-time hardware salesman and full-time handyman Rey King lives to work—but not because he loves it. Relationships? No time. Until one glance at Sam’s haunted eyes sends a plumb line straight to his wary heart.

One afternoon of impulsive, no-strings sex begins to grow into a cautious friendship. But when Rey is seriously injured protecting a friend, the cracks in their already shaky foundation begin to show. Falling in love wasn’t in either man’s recovery plan…and this time, the risk could be too great.

Warning: Contains one emotionally wrecked cop, one angsty short-order cook, a few too many secrets, some meddling small-town folk, and plenty of hot man-on-man action.