Our Parking Lots Are Bigger Than Our Downtowns

When architect Mara Bell returns to her fading Michigan hometown after her father's death, she plans to settle his affairs, close the door on the past, and get back to the successful life she built in Chicago. Bellweather is still the place she remembers-half-empty storefronts, too much asphalt, and more parking lots than downtown.Then she sees Eli Mercer.Once her first love, Eli is now a restoration contractor fighting to save the abandoned Majestic Theater from demolition. He stayed when Mara left, built a life among the buildings everyone else forgot, and learned long ago not to expect her to come back.But when Mara discovers the theater may not be beyond saving, professional curiosity pulls her into Eli's fight. What begins as a temporary inspection becomes late nights beneath a leaking roof, emergency repairs, dangerous rescues, old memories, and a growing realization that the town she escaped may still have something worth building.As Mara and Eli work side by side, the distance between who they were and who they have become begins to disappear. Yet loving each other is no longer as simple as it was at eighteen. Mara's career is calling her back to the city, Eli refuses to ask her to sacrifice the life she earned, and Bellweather itself is fighting for a future nobody can guarantee.Set against a struggling downtown slowly coming back to life, Our Parking Lots Are Bigger Than Our Downtowns is a heartfelt contemporary romance about first love, second chances, grief, ambition, community, and the courage to choose what deserves your effort before it disappears.Because sometimes home is not the place you never leave.Sometimes it is the place you finally choose to build.