Love Me at My Worst By Adrian J. Smith

Isla Evans has a rule: never get attached. As a fiercely independent kindergarten teacher with a carefully guarded heart, she’s an expert at keeping people at arm’s length—until a new substitute teacher, Adrian Hayes, walks into her classroom and refuses to be kept out. He’s sunshine to her storm clouds, effortlessly charming and disarmingly persistent. But Isla is hiding a world of pain behind her sharp wit, convinced that no one could love the messy, anxious, vulnerable person she is behind closed doors.

Adrian, haunted by his own past, is determined to prove her wrong. He’s seen her at her worst, and he’s not going anywhere. This is a tender, deeply emotional story about letting down your walls, embracing your flaws, and finding the person who loves you not in spite of your broken pieces, but because of them.