Just Like Home (Harbor Pointe, #4)

by Courtney Walsh

“I guess maybe I want someone to love the parts of me that no one’s cheering for.”

mostly, she wanted to prove she belonged here—to be accepted without question.

But at some point, his life had to stop being about him and his pain. It had to be about helping the people he loved. And if it would make Amelia smile, Cole would make a fool of himself a hundred times over.

“Don’t give up on him so quickly, Charlotte,” Hildy said. “Cole is one of the best men you’ll ever know.”

It wasn’t passion or even ambition that motivated her. It was an overwhelming desire to be worthy. She was still, even now, trying to earn her place, as if she didn’t have the same right to be here unless she had something to offer. She peppered Cole with gifts that all seemed to cry out, Do you like me yet? She’d tried so hard to be seen, to prove she had value. And it had worn her out. Earning her worth had exhausted her.

“I don’t really know much about love.” A smile played at the corner of his mouth. “Me neither, but I do know it doesn’t have to be earned,” he said. “Not the real kind anyway—that kind is given. No strings. No conditions.”

If love was really unconditional, if it didn’t need to be earned, she could stop striving so hard. She could simply be herself.