A social worker fighting the good fight. A mousy orphan dodging trouble. Can the public servant find common ground before one of them gets permanently kicked to the curb?

Laurel Caine wants to pay it forward. As a case handler in child protective services, Laurel maintains a professional distance from her charges while using her stash of ‘secret weapons’ to keep them safe. But after she meets a thin, timid girl named Julia, keeping the child at arm’s length is proving harder than resisting the call of chocolate.

So when Julia’s current foster home wants to ditch her without cause, Laurel bayonets the rules and goes all in. But Julia is a tough nut to crack and wheedling what Laurel needs to know out of her is like pulling teeth from a bucking bronco.

Can Laurel hammer the cryptic clues together in time, or will she stay stuck in the muck and lose more than she ever imagined?

Excerpt

Throgmorton’s frown disappeared, replaced by wariness. I was sure he was trying to decide if I’d had a ‘tone’ or ‘attitude’ in my reply. He wouldn’t find it. This wasn’t my first rodeo. “Might we go inside, sir? It’s a scorcher today. Already hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk out here.”

A half-grin appeared for a second on Mr. Throgmorton’s face, and he stepped back to let me in. Colloquial phrases were another weapon in my arsenal.

Social workers are the unsung soldiers of society—fighting the good fight one case at a time. But doing the work is how I pay it forward. That phrase has stuck with me ever since I first read it in a tattered old science fiction paperback by Robert Heinlein called Between Planets. Became something of a mantra, you might say. It’s the reason I got into doing social work: to help pave the way for others to have better lives. Like they did for my family in our time of need.

I’m not a saint, y’all. So don’t get the wrong idea. But I like to do what I can.

ISBN: 978-1957230122