City Boy Stuck

Tripp Myers has his life mapped out—or at least that’s what he’s always believed. Raised among the polished expectations of Winston-Salem society, he’s mastered the role: the right words, the right smile, the right kind of ambition. But when his expensive car breaks down in the middle of Dusty Hollow, North Carolina, the life he’s worked so hard to maintain suddenly starts to feel like someone else’s dream.

Winston Diggs runs the only garage in town and has never had much patience for people who perform their lives instead of living them. When Tripp stumbles into his shop—disheveled, frustrated, and more honest than he’s ever allowed himself to be—Winston sees something beneath the polish. Something real.

But Dusty Hollow and Winston-Salem might as well be different worlds. Tripp has a legacy waiting for him, along with a father who expects him to follow the path that’s already been laid out. Winston knows better than to reach for something that was never meant to stay.

Except sometimes the hardest thing isn’t leaving—it’s choosing to stay. And sometimes the person who changes everything is the one who sees you clearly the moment you stop pretending.

Join bestselling author C.C. Black for a story about expectations, small-town truths, and the kind of love that finds you when everything else falls apart.