Forever Only Once by Carrie Ann Ryan

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After talking about the Montgomery's all the time, after she introduced Arden in her Montgomery's: Boulder series, Carrie Ann decided to write about the Brady family. Arden's brothers. Of course she would start with Cross who is the oldest. He's always been the gruff one and over protective of his little sister. He had even warned off her now husband, Liam in the beginning. Now we dive into his life more. He's half owner of a store called Chris Cross. I'm not sure off the spelling of that off the top of my head. It was a brilliant name play off of his name and his partner's name, Chris. When Chris talks Cross into meeting a prospective client at the bar for him, Cross unbeknownst to him, sits down at the wrong table. Hazel and her friends are tired of being alone and scared to put themselves out there. So they make a pact. They focus on one person at a time and set them up on blind dates until one reaches the goal of happiness. Lucky for Hazel she's the first victim. At least that's how it feels to her. Sitting at a pub waiting for her blind date to show up isn't very fun. When a guy sits down next to her though, things get interesting real fast. After a drink and a couple of laughs, they both look at their phones to find out that the people that they were there for were not going to show up. Instead of being weird though, they just order food and keep talking. The instant connection is great. Though, Hazel doesn't trust him entirely. After leaving an abusive marriage, Hazel is very reluctant to trust another guy...even though for some odd reason, she instinctively wants to trust Cross. Cross has his own issues. His partner Chris, has been a real jerk lately and is hard to even be around anymore. After looking at their financial papers, he also finds out that he's been stealing from the store as well. Now he's lost a friend and needs a lawyer to dissolve his business partnership. Everything should be fine. But it's not. Hazel has been getting mysterious texts that she isn't telling anyone about. Her ex-should be in a different state. There's no way that he could have followed her to Colorado...could he? When faced with this new threat in a relatively new relationship, will Cross save her or will he run in the opposite direction? Everything is still so new to Hazel, she just doesn't know what to do. She's made herself into the woman she is now, after the abuse, but will this be what puts her back over the edge? Too scared to even leave the house again? Carrie Ann does it every time. If you've read Wrapped in Ink, the first book in the Montgomery: Boulder series, you'll see a different side of Cross that you didn't see in that book. Hazel is most definitely a woman that you want to root for. She built herself from the ground up after her abusive marriage and when she meets Cross, she doesn't want him to heal her but be with her while she heals herself. It just hits you in the feels. *picture from google