Deeper Than the Ridge #970612

Some fault lines aren’t on the map. You have to learn how to read them.
Tyler Reeves finally has the coordinator’s keys to Morrow SAR Station. He knows the names of the trails, the location of the wind blocks, and how to sequence a high-angle rescue. But knowing the mechanics of a valley isn’t the same as belonging to it, and Tyler’s carefully maintained distance is starting to fray.
Geologist Mara Solis doesn’t do distance. She does data. Sent by the USGS to map a deep-earth thermal anomaly stretching beneath Ironwood Basin, she arrives with a mission and a promise to herself: never let her research be used to harm a landscape again.
But the earth under Ironwood is shifting. When Mara discovers the thermal system extends beyond the protected Public Land Trust boundary, she inadvertently hands a commercial energy developer the exact leverage they need to build a power plant that could irreparably damage the valley’s ecosystem.
With an Environmental Impact Statement deadline looming, Tyler and Mara find themselves working the same terrain. He coordinates the surface; she measures the depths. As they construct a case to defend the valley, the quiet competence they see in each other shifts into a profound, undeniable connection. But stopping an opponent who is playing entirely by the rules requires more than good data. It requires choosing a side.
Deeper Than the Ridge is the fourth standalone novel in the Ironwood Rescue series—an intelligent, intensely emotional contemporary romance where love isn’t about grand gestures, but about showing up to do the work. If you love competence-kink, slow-burn emotional intimacy, and couples who protect their community as fiercely as they protect each other, this is your next read.