Roots Run Deep

She's been running her family's pecan orchard alone for five years. The last thing she needs is a soil scientist telling her how to do it.

Jolene Pemberton does not need help. She has been running Pemberton Pecan Orchards since her grandfather's stroke, through drought and debt and the particular loneliness of a woman who carries everything alone because asking for help feels like admitting she is not enough. She has red clay under her nails, a stubborn streak wider than the county, and absolutely no patience for the academic with the PhD and the soil samples who just showed up to tell her that her trees are dying.

Elijah "Eli" Cross is a soil scientist. He speaks data. He has been hired by the Magnolia Creek growers' co-op to assess orchard health, and Jolene Pemberton's orchard is showing signs of zinc deficiency that she is too proud to see and too stubborn to address. He is calm. She is a thunderstorm. He presents evidence. She presents a middle finger. He has never met anyone who can make the word "consultant" sound like a profanity.

He is also — and this is going to be a problem — right.

The orchard forces them together. The Georgia heat makes everything worse. And somewhere between the soil samples and the pecan harvest, Jolene stops fighting the science and starts fighting the feeling — which is harder, and hotter, and involves a man who listens like it matters and touches her like she is worth the patience.

"He showed up with data. I showed up with a shovel. He was right about the zinc. I am never going to tell him that."

Roots Run Deep is Book 2 in Magnolia Creek. Each book is a complete standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA. Dual POV. The hottest book in the series. Start here or start with Book 1.

Enemies-to-lovers. Stubborn farm girl meets patient scientist. She falls first (and will die before admitting it). Pecan orchards. Georgia heat. The kind of slow burn that catches fire in an orchard at sunset.

For fans of enemies-to-lovers Southern small-town romance, banter-driven slow burn, and heroines who would rather dig a ditch than ask for help.

Free with this complete series.