# 40
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and TikTok favorite Tessa Bailey comes a steamy new rom-com about a starchy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...
Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his familyâs winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if sheâll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isnât the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girlsâ night later, Hallie canât shake the sense that she did something recklessâand then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.
On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. Sheâs eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirtâand so unbelievably beautiful, he canât focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, heâs sucked further into Hallieâs orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julianâs gray-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But thereâs something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down.
