Amber had built a fortress around her heart. After a string of painful disappointments that left her feeling hollowed out, she had quietly given up on love, accepting a life of peaceful solitude over the chaos of connection. So, when her life was irrevocably altered at a Saturday cookout in her father’s backyard, no one was more surprised than her.
She arrived late, the scent of charcoal and freshly cut grass thick in the summer air. Her father’s boisterous laughter echoed from the patio, where his buddies from the auto shop were gathered. But one man stood slightly apart from the boisterous group, nursing a beer and watching the sunset with a quiet intensity. He was introduced as Steve, a name from her father’s past, a man with kind eyes and a handshake that was both firm from hard work and gentle in its touch.
