Grace Between Us

She only meant to hold a stranger's hand for two blocks. She didn't mean to fall in love with his second chance.

Josie Bellamy has spent four years building a careful, steady life around her small Southern hometown's community center - safe from the kind of heartbreak that once left her standing alone three weeks before her own wedding. So when her best friend dares her to take part in the town festival's silliest tradition - walking hand in hand with a stranger down Main Street - Josie tells herself it's harmless.

Then the stranger turns out to be Deacon Marsh: the hardware store owner's son, a musician come home after a decade on the road, quietly rebuilding his sobriety, his faith, and whatever's left of the boy this town remembers. He's not looking for anything either - until a dare, a hand held for ninety seconds, and a Wednesday-night dinner start pulling him toward a life he stopped believing he deserved.

What follows is a slow, tender unfolding - soup pots and porch rebuilds, honest conversations about grace and forgiveness, and the particular courage it takes two guarded hearts to let themselves be fully known. Neither of them is looking for a grand gesture. They're just trying to figure out if an ordinary, faithful love - built one Wednesday at a time - might be the biggest thing either of them could ever choose.

Inside this story:

- A slow-burn, clean romance - nothing beyond a held hand, a warm embrace, and one long-awaited kiss

- Two guarded hearts learning that grace isn't earned - it's simply walked through, together

- A warm, found-family small town full of soup-pot suppers, front-porch wisdom, and second chances

- Honest, heartfelt faith themes - community, forgiveness, and hope - without a single sermon

- A satisfying happily-ever-after worth every page it takes to get there

Perfect for readers who love clean and wholesome romance, small-town Southern settings, second-chance and slow-burn love stories, and quiet, faith-affirming fiction in the spirit of Denise Hunter, Becky Wade, and Karen Kingsbury.