When I read the back blurb, I was going to ding the author for having a penchant for bachelor auctions because I had just read another book by her where the couple met through a bachelor auction. Once I started reading the book though, I realized it was the same auction as in the previous book, just with different characters.

Like the other book I read, the female in this book is looking for a handyman to help out with some repairs--although in this case it is for her in-home daycare. Her daughter and friend (a friend who mysteriously goes missing for the rest of the book) bid on Seth for her.

Seth starts out the book as a bachelor who's revisiting his hometown for a short time before he starts college on the GI bill. Seth's best friend, Luke, was killed while the two were serving together, leaving behind a wife and young son.

Shortly after Seth meets Rachel, Luke's wife, Tracy, dies. Luke and Tracy had told Seth they were naming him guardian, but Seth never thought it would come so soon. He turns to Rachel for some of his parenting questions since she's the single mother of a teenager and watches kids at her daycare.

I like Seth's commitment to keep his word. Even though Rachel gives him an out, he still follows through with his service hours she purchased via the auction. He also, after a short adjustment period, commits to keeping the ranch up for Caden (Luke's and Tracy's son) and to raising Caden as his friends had requested. He even comes to see Caden as a blessing. I also admire that once he realized he was in love with Rachel, he didn't find a ton of excuses as to why he couldn't be in love with her.

I do wonder at his proposing when he did. Rachel didn't seem to be giving him much encouragement in the two of them being a couple department. And even if she did say yes in front of everyone at Caden's birthday party, I'm still worried that she's going to analyze it to death and back away again once she doesn't have the public spectacle aspect.

I don't get Rachel's reluctance. I can understand at first--she and her daughter Zooey have been just the two of them for some time. I can understand and admire Rachel for not wanting to parade a bunch of men into Zooey's life only to have them both hurt if the relationship doesn't work out--especially when Zooey was younger and it would have been harder to explain. But Zooey is about 16 now from the sounds of it, certainly able to understand dating and heartbreak. I can also understand that it requires breaking up their routine, which can be a hard thing to do. My best guess with Rachel is that it is still a self-esteem thing.

I do like that Rachel is the one who comes up with the idea to show Trish what she is in for if she wants to have custody of Caden--raising the child, running the ranch, putting out her own money at times since the trust is for Caden's college. I didn't like Trish at first, but she seems like a decent woman once she faces the truth about herself and her life. ( )