Loblolly

Josie Kendrick went into the woods to break up with a tree. She didn't expect the tree to have a witness.

Practicing on an old loblolly pine is easier than telling Trey Vinzant she's done. In Persimmon Bluff, everyone sees his easy smile. Josie is the one living with the tracked phone, the constant questions, and a life that keeps getting smaller.

Then forester Matt Woodall steps out from behind her tree, offers notes on her breakup speech, and accidentally paints her sneaker blue.

Matt has a three-legged hound and a dry sense of humor. He also listens to Josie as if what she says matters. Their conversations beneath the pines give her something she hasn't felt in years: room to imagine a future of her own.

But Matt has secrets, too. When the life Josie is leaving threatens the one she's trying to build, she'll need more than a man who wants to protect her. She'll need the truth, even when it hurts.

Set in the Georgia pine woods, Loblolly is a tender, funny Southern romance about starting over and learning what it takes to trust someone with the life you've fought to reclaim.