Being a single dad while managing one of the biggest businesses in New Orleans keeps me very busy. I spend my free time with my daughter, Bella—reading to her, styling her hair, or choosing nail polishes appropriate for an eight-year-old. But I’m okay with that, because she is my whole world.

After my divorce, I made myself a promise: I wouldn’t date until Bella was older. Then, all my good intentions go up in smoke when I hire our newest chef for the flagship restaurant in the French Quarter.

Scarlett Jones is unlike any woman I’d ever met. She’s smart, beautiful, and I can’t get enough of her. For more reasons than one, I need to keep my distance. So when I begin flirting…surprising her with beignets and coffee at break time, then king cake after hours, I know I’ve gone too far. And when I join Scarlett on a ridiculous haunted tour of the city, I’m certain I’ve lost my mind. She’s become my addiction. I want to explore those curves, find out her deepest desires—and make them come true.

But it’s when she offers to teach my daughter how to bake, I know I’m in wayyyyy over my head. When the three of us are together, I get a glimpse of the family we could be.The question is, are we both ready to put our fears behind us?