INCONVENIENT FEELINGS

Garrett Muldoon built a three-billion-dollar development company out of one South Richmond triplex, and since the night his wife died on an icy bridge, he's run his Virginia estate the same way he runs a job site: rules typed, staff in their lanes, his eight-year-old daughter kept safely home where nothing can reach her. Four tutors have quit in fourteen months. He's fine.

Then Hazel Inwood arrives — and on her first night, in his own kitchen, tells him his daughter isn't a project with a deliverable.

Before Hazel can get Rosie ready to walk back into a classroom in January, there's the plate she keeps warm on the back of the range for a man who eats standing at the sink, the midnight she takes his cold leftovers away and tells him to sit down because he's not a horse, the padlocked stable he finally opens at five in the morning, the riding lesson he swore he wouldn't attend and watches from the fence in a suit, and the vent in Rosie's bedroom floor above the kitchen that she's been listening through for weeks.

Hazel has spent two years taking care of everyone and has never once let anyone take care of her. Garrett has spent four years believing that keeping people at arm's length is the same thing as keeping them safe. And the better Hazel does her job, the sooner she has to leave.

Grumpy single dad billionaire romance with Virginia horse-country beauty, a midnight kitchen, and an eight-year-old who figures it out before either of them will say it. The kind of book where the most romantic thing a billionaire ever does is keep someone's dinner warm.

WHY THIS WILL SELL

→ Romance > Billionaires & Millionaires sits at 9.8 sales-to-comp (Hot Mainstream) with 515 estimated daily sales per top 20 title — proven demand, still outpacing supply

→ Triple-stack with Romance > Workplace (12.5 sales-to-comp, Hot Mainstream) and Family Life (674 daily sales per top 20 title) — three high-volume shelves at once

→ Grumpy/Sunshine indexes at 65 for sales vs. competition ($804K monthly) — one of the most efficient tropes in the entire category

→ "Emotional" is the fastest-rising theme in billionaire romance (up 8 positions) — readers want feelings over gloss, and this delivers exactly that

→ Single Dad is underserved (only 5% of bestsellers, indexing at 55) — live 2026 demand with a thin shelf

→ The floor-vent reveal is built to be shared — an eight-year-old outing her dad's midnight dinners is a screenshot-ready scene

TROPES: • Grumpy/Sunshine • Single Dad • Forbidden Boss/Employee • Slow Burn • Widower Hero • Found Family • Billionaire • Live-In Tutor • He's Only Soft for His Kid • Midnight Kitchen Dinners • The Kid Knew First • A Plate Kept Warm • "Fine." Means Something Different Every Time • The Stable He Couldn't Open • She Picked Herself First • Dual POV

HEAT LEVEL: Heat-Flexible (HIGH CEILING) — Dial the Heat™ compatible; a midpoint first kiss and two flagged intimacy scenes play closed-door through fully explicit without changing the outline, and every scene happens while Rosie is asleep out of earshot or away at her aunt's

Perfect for fans of: T L Swan, Louise Bay, Lilian Monroe, and Susie Tate

WHAT'S INSIDE THIS PACKAGE

⭐️ Story Premise — high-concept pitch, elevator pitch, and Market-Matched™ analysis with triple-category positioning and competitive analysis against four direct comps

⭐️ Complete Codex — full story bible with main characters, supporting cast of 8, the Stonecrop estate, its padlocked stable and midnight kitchen, Hollow Run Stables, a day-by-day 14-week timeline, dual third-person voice system with distinct patterns for Garrett (clipped, structural, dry) and Hazel (warm, sensory, classroom-funny), relationship progression, heat-flexible intimacy guidance, and series seeds for 3 future books

⭐️ Chapter-by-Chapter Outline — 20 chapters + epilogue with scene breakdowns, emotional beats, key dialogue, word count targets, and heat flags marking where Rosie is for every intimate scene

⭐️ AI-Ready Chapter Prompts — 21 fully self-contained prompts with tone, pacing, verbatim key dialogue, heat-level instructions, and distinct voice guidance for alternating POV

⭐️ Marketing Copy — Amazon listing with categories and keywords, back cover copy, social media posts, newsletter announcement, reader magnet concepts, series launch strategy, and two Ideogram cover prompts

⭐️ Market-Matched™ Brief — market snapshot, seven-keyword strategy with rationale, competitive positioning, pricing strategy, cover direction, and series strategy

One buyer. One story. Exclusively yours.