The Mercer Family

Holding Ground Description

I’ve been a single dad for five years. Then the wrong woman rented the guest cabin behind my house, and I knew right then she was going to ruin everything.

When Baylor's mother walked out, I made a promise—I'd be enough. Just the two of us. No one to disappoint her. No one else to leave.

Then Emelia Greene rolled into Echo Lake in a Mercedes and a power suit to convince the townspeople to change what makes our small town great. She’s everything this place isn't.

Emelia's not supposed to be kind. She's not supposed to be good with my daughter. She's definitely not supposed to be the one I find myself confiding in at the end of my dock every night.

She's leaving in three months. I know that.

The problem is, I can't stop wondering what it would be like if a woman like her belonged in a place like this.

In a life like mine.

©2026 Piper Rayne Inc. (P)2026 Piper Rayne Inc.