Grant Talbot has shown up for Jenna Ludington for a decade. Handyman. Math tutor. The man in every seat her girls' father left empty. He's also been hopelessly in love with her the whole time—and he's never said a word. He doesn't need to. She's made it clear he's her best friend, and that's all he'll ever be.
So he's leaving. A restaurant, an ocean, a fresh start in New Zealand—enough distance to finally stop waiting.
Then his estranged half-sister leaves a baby on his doorstep and vanishes.
Grant doesn't know which end of a bottle is up. Jenna can do it in her sleep—and most nights that first year, she did. Suddenly they're up at midnight in the same kitchen, trading off a fussy newborn and accidentally building the exact life they'd both stopped believing they'd get.
Trouble is, Jenna doesn't need anybody. She's beaten cancer three times, raised two daughters alone, and built a whole life on one rule: don't depend on someone who might leave. And Grant's plane leaves in six weeks.
She can't fall for a man halfway out the door. He can't ask her to give him a reason to stay.
Some things only take root in winter.
The Beauty of Wintering is the fourth and final standalone novel in Maple Lake: Smitten Season—four cozy winter romances from Sunrise Publishing. Cold hands. Warm hearts. Come get smitten.
READERS WILL LOVE…
● A best-friends-to-more romance ten years in the making—and a hero who's loved her the whole time and never said a word.
● A surprise baby on the doorstep and an instant family neither of them planned, built one midnight feeding at a time.
● A fierce single-mom heroine who survived everything and swore she'd never lean on anyone again.
● A ticking clock—six weeks until his plane leaves—and every reason not to fall.
● Slow burn, found family, and faith woven in as a quiet grace note. Clean, closed-door, all heart.
Janine Rosche is an ECPA bestselling and Selah Award–winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction, utilizing her education in human development and family studies to bring together emotionally layered characters and poignant storylines that explore what it means to belong, forgive, and begin again. Her favorite part of her writing career is the opportunities it has created to connect with others and learn from their experiences across the United States, from the small towns along Route 66, through national parks and the Great Lakes, and deep into the heartland. When she isn’t writing or traveling, she teaches family life education courses, takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs, and embarrasses her husband and children with boy band serenades.
For more information, visit her at janinerosche.com.