He thought she'd wait for "later" forever. She thought love and loving her were supposed to be the same thing - until she learned they weren't.

Claire Bellamy married a good man who lost himself in his father's grief. Every dream she had - a bakery of her own, a career-defining job offer, a husband who showed up on time - got the same gentle answer: once the loan closes. Once the season's over. Later.

Then her son nearly drowns twenty-six feet from where his father is finalizing paperwork instead of watching him, and Claire finally understands the truth she's been avoiding for two years: Graham will always come. Just never in the window that actually matters.

She packs one suitcase, takes their son, and drives north to a shuttered lakeside bakery she inherited and never once visited - carrying a secret decision that will change the life she's about to rebuild.

Graham comes home to an empty house and a choice he never saw coming. Losing her is the only thing that finally makes him put down the business he's been using to outrun his father's death - and start becoming a man worth trusting again.

When his own work brings him, by his own choice, straight to the town where she's quietly building something entirely her own, he has to decide whether to chase her - or finally learn to wait the right way, on her terms, for once in his life.

A deeply emotional story of grief, neglect, resilience, and the hard-earned courage to stop being anyone's "later."

Perfect for readers who loved The Husband Who Stopped Seeing Her and The Wife He Almost Lost.

Scroll up and start reading today. A standalone story with a guaranteed HEA.