When Ava accepts a live-in nanny position for a quiet, guarded single father, she expects long hours and a challenging child. What she doesn’t expect is Ethan—handsome, intense, and impossible to read. His young son, Caleb, hides behind silence and mistrust, and Ethan keeps his own walls firmly in place.

But Ava’s warmth and persistence begin to chip away at those barriers, drawing father and son into moments of connection neither thought possible. The more time she spends in their home, the more she catches glimpses of a man weighed down by secrets…and a longing he can’t hide when their eyes meet.

Ethan knows letting Ava in is dangerous. He’s already lost too much, and his past is more tangled than she realizes. Yet every laugh she shares with Caleb, every spark of unguarded desire between them, pulls him closer to the one thing he swore he’d never risk again—his heart.

With emotions running high and desire simmering just beneath the surface, their fragile connection is threatened by old wounds and outside pressures. Ava must decide if she can love a man who struggles to trust, and Ethan must face the question he’s avoided for years: is protecting his heart worth losing the only woman who truly sees him?

Can they bridge the gap between guarded pasts and the future they both crave, or will fear and pride tear them apart for good?

The Daddy Contract