She has twenty-nine days to save her coffee shop from a loan shark. The last thing she needs is a shirtless firefighter posing at her espresso machine. Kate Richardson always has a plan. But when the debt collector’s clock starts ticking, every system she’s built—the careful filing systems, the color-coded categories of disaster, the rules designed to keep her heart safe—starts falling apart. Especially when January Walsh, Collins, Colorado’s most infuriating calendar model, refuses to leave his stool at her counter. January has never stayed anywhere long enough to unpack. Three words and a duffel that’s his entire romantic history. But something about Kate has kept him ordering cortados and memorizing her habits for five years, and he’s starting to think the go-bag in his closet might finally stay empty. The problem is, Kate doesn’t believe in men who stay. And January doesn’t know how. Forty-five thousand dollars is running out. So is time. And in Collins, where the town group chat has a live spreadsheet tracking their compatibility and the espresso machine has opinions, there’s nowhere to hide from what’s building between them. Standing in a kitchen at 3 AM, foreheads pressed together, a ghost of a kiss between them—neither one of them is sure they’re strong enough to walk away anymore. Some fires are worth the burn. Playing with Fire is Book Two in the Station 12 Firehouse Series—a small-town slow burn romance with forced proximity, a hero learning to stay, and a heroine learning to let him. wordsStandalone with seriesHeat 🌶️🌶️🌶️