Back to Always

by Avery Winslow

The Second Time Around · Book 11

When Jenn Morgan loses her diner job for finally standing up to an entitled customer, she's forced to return to the one place she swore she'd never go back to, the small town library where her dreams died ten years ago. Working minimum wage while caring for her sick mother, she's built a careful life around the ruins of a scholarship she never accepted and a future she abandoned after one devastating prom night. Then Ethan Calloway walks back into her life with his impossibly perceptive nine-year-old daughter, and suddenly Jenn is confronted with the man who disappeared without explanation and the question she's been too afraid to ask: why wasn't she worth fighting for? As Ethan volunteers for the struggling library's summer program, his presence forces Jenn to examine the lies she's told herself about why she's spent a decade standing still. But when his sister arrives with revelations that rewrite everything Jenn thought she knew about their past, she must decide whether protecting her heart matters more than reclaiming the dreams she buried alongside her first love. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is choose yourself first, even when it means letting go of the person you thought you couldn't live without.

5 chapters