The Soldier's Second Chance — Elana Johnson

A wounded Marine returns to Hawthorne Harbor years after the woman he was married to for exactly one week before she got an annulment...and then a baby nine months later. Can Hunter and Alice make a family out of past heartache? Love's second chance on the beach!

Hunter Magleby hasn't been back to Hawthorne Harbor in nine years. His parents have moved from the small beach town, but Hunter feels called to return to his roots after a career-ending injury overseas. He limps, literally, back into town, some unfinished business between him and the wife he left all those years ago.

Alice Kopp got an annulment only a week into the marriage, and she hasn't heard from Hunter since. She sees him almost every day though, when she looks into her son's eyes, so much like his father's. Yes, Westin is a spitting image of Hunter, and Alice dreads the day she'll have to introduce the two of them, because Hunter will be furious with her.

When Hunter goes to the hospital for his physical therapy appointment, he runs into Alice, who works as a nurse in the NICU. She's eating lunch with her son, and when her mother shows up to pick up the boy so Alice can go back to work, it becomes a jolly good family reunion.

Hunter just didn't realize he was part of the family.

And he is furious with Alice but also desperate to get to know the son he didn't know he had. As he battles his war injury, his depression, and his anger with Alice, only two things calms him: his therapy dog and his son. The more time he spends with Westin, the more he has to see Alice too, and the old flame that was there almost a decade ago is still burning brightly. Can Hunter and Alice find a way to forgive one another and build a family with their son? Or will the past be too big of an obstacle to overcome?