DEAD RECKONING

Dead Reckoning
A Stone River Romance
by Mara Bennett

Some reckonings take time.

Theo Whitaker knows how to fix things. Engines. Fences. Irrigation lines. Problems that have a clear cause and a practical solution.

People are harder.

Fourteen months ago, a fire nearly destroyed the Pruett barn-and for two months the town of Stone River believed Theo might have set it. The truth eventually came out, but the damage lingered in quieter ways. Some things don't go back to the way they were.

Paige Rourke has spent those fourteen months knowing she was one of the people who should have stood beside him and didn't.

Now a problem upstream is threatening Theo's land. The creek that has fed the Whitaker property for generations is running low, and the cattle are the first to show the damage. As the town's only farm veterinarian, Paige is the one who finds it-and the one who keeps coming back to help him fight it.

Working side by side, documenting the land and building a case that could protect it, they begin to rebuild something neither of them is sure they deserve.

But small towns have long memories. And forgiveness, like water, moves slowly through the ground.

Sometimes the hardest thing to repair isn't the land.

It's the distance between two people who never stopped noticing each other.

Dead Reckoning is a quiet, deeply emotional small-town romance about second chances, patience, and the things worth fighting for.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Small town romance

• Slow burn relationships

• Rural settings and community life

• Emotionally mature characters

• Stories where the land matters as much as the people

Welcome back to Stone River.