Playing For Keeps

Elise Carter has perfected the art of holding it together.

As a senior marketing director, she commands boardrooms with precision. As a wife, she's built a beautiful life with Graham, warm, intimate, and deeply loving. But after losing a pregnancy in a devastating accident, Elise has learned to brace herself. To manage her anxiety. To make everyone comfortable, even when it costs her peace.

​

When both families descend for a weeklong visit, Elise does what she always does: she hosts, she smooths over tension, she makes space. Graham believes his mother will eventually soften. That love alone will be enough. That time will fix what he won't defend.

​

He's wrong.

​

One careless comment at dinner detonates everything Elise has been holding back. And as she walks out the door, Graham is left with a truth he can no longer avoid: love without protection isn't love at all.

​

Now he has to prove that choosing her means more than words. It means showing up, publicly, fiercely, and without hesitation. Because Elise isn't asking for perfection. She's asking to feel safe in her own home again.

​

A deeply emotional, no-breakup romance about marriage, grief, and what it means to be chosen, every single day. Guaranteed HEA.