Darren - Laurel Springs Fish & Wildlife, #3

I stopped believing in love the day my wife asked me for a divorce.

Darren Kepler

My daughter is toddler and she needs a father who shows up every single day, to combat the mother who is notoriously absent. So I put my head down, go to work every day, and tell myself that was enough. Here I am, a third-generation law enforcement officer with a toddler and a broken marriage. I'm not exactly anyone's idea of a catch.

Then Macie walks into the Lean To, and I ask her to dance before I can talk myself out of it.

She didn't come looking for a ready-made family, and I didn't come looking for a woman who'd make me forget every reason I have to keep my distance.

But when Macie shows up at my door in the middle of the night bruised, shaking, and asking me to keep her from being alone, I can't tell her no. In that moment, I want to to be everything she's asking me to be.

I'm a cop. I make my living assessing situations, being calm, and not letting my anger get the better of me.

But I'm about to throw all of that out the window. I'm after the man who put his hands on her.

Because nobody touches what's mine.

And somewhere along the way, without ever meaning to, Macie most definitely became mine.