Merge by L. K. Kirk

The first time Van walked into the diner, I got the nudge. You know, the go-get-him-Emma nudge. It was a nudge for something I wasn’t interested in.
I hadn’t uprooted my life and moved to the small town of West River to find love. Been there, done that, and all I had to show for my trip down Lover’s Lane was a mountain of trust issues, a nonexistent relationship with my parents, and a beautiful baby girl to raise all on my own.
Van, however, didn’t get the memo that I wanted nothing more than a quick hookup—quick being the key word. I wanted something simple, short, no strings attached. Yet everywhere I looked, Van was there with his annoyingly captivating eyes, muscles that could take down a grizzly bear, and mischievous smile that had the power to charm the…apron…off of a waitress like me.
So what if I didn’t tell Van about my daughter?
That’s what a protective mother does—right?
Wrong.
So wrong.
And Van? Judging from the panicked expression on his face the first time he laid eyes on Willow, he was not interested in kids
Or so I thought.
It seemed Van might be interested in merging into our lives more than I thought. The question, though: was I?