Feeling Fiery

Life gets awkward when two opposites find love is their unexpected adventure.

Fiadh O'Cleary, the planner of all planners, is ready to celebrate all summer after becoming a tenured associate professor of fermentation and brewing. Within hours of turning in her grades and going home for the break, she finds a letter in her city apartment informing her she's now single because she's boring. Worse, she discovers her carefully laid out plans of teaching students the art of making hard cider in a proper space that is not a makeshift lab, her dream of all dreams, is close to gone. An evening of commiseration with her best friend since childhood leaves her with a throbbing head and a litany of emails for day-trip adventures in woodsy northwestern New Jersey.

Fiadh calls the adventure company to cancel and is informed by the grumpy man on the phone, Maverick Graves, that the programs are nonrefundable. Despite trying charm and then flat-out protest, she cannot change his mind. Her choices are kissing the money goodbye or a summer of hiking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, and more experiences she is not prepared for. Maverick thinks nature has all the answers Fiadh needs, but she is not convinced. After all, nature cannot plan. On an adventure day, rain pours, and she goes running for shelter only to find herself in a defunct old cider mill. The mill leaves her breathless. With repairs and proper care, the space would be better than anything the city could ever offer. But the mill comes with Maverick.

As the summer ticks away and her timeline grows shorter, she finds arguing with Maverick in the woods is more fun than not being around him. His quiet nature is a frustrating combination of intoxicating and intellectually addicting. The pressing timeline of the upcoming school year means she must figure out whether there's a way to be all in with Maverick and the mill, or if she'll have to hit pause and retreat back to her comfortable routine of university life.

Plans are hard to make when there are distractions everywhere, and Maverick Graves is a distraction.