Cover

About the book

A marriage of convenience can test even the best of friends.

Holden Henry is every girl’s dream—kind, funny, outgoing. A catch in every sense. Despite my wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing, he’s been my friend forever. He has no idea I’ve had more-than-friends feelings for him for years, and I intend to keep it that way.

When I’m forced to return to the small town where we grew up, I’m faced with a big, fat problem. Being a good pal, Holden offers me a too-tempting solution: a marriage of convenience. It’s a crazy plan…but I’m desperate enough to try it. Besides, he’s not just saving me; we’ll be helping each other.

The catch? We have to stay married for a year. But once I inherit the company of my dreams and Holden launches his own start-up, we can go back to being just friends, right? Except…what if he figures out that I’ve been in love with him forever? Worse, what if I have to choose between the career I’ve always wanted and the man I can’t live without?

Chapter 1

Chloe

There was a reason I hadn’t been back to my hometown in sixteen years.

Sixteen life-changing years. Yet as I approached the town limits of Dragonfly Lake on this brisk, drizzly March morning, there it was. That familiar feeling slid into my gut like an acid bath, sucking my self-confidence out of me and threatening to turn me back into an insecure girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

The ancient wooden sign that read “Welcome to Picturesque Dragonfly Lake, Population: More than a Couple Dozen”—hand-carved by Anna Delfico’s grandfather long before the population had grown to more than a few thousand on a good summer weekend—came into view. I sat up straighter and steeled myself.

I glanced down at my armor—high-dollar, designer-label, tailored black pants, silky cream-colored blouse, the trench coat that’d cost more than my monthly rent, and especially the red-soled, black ankle boots—and muttered out loud, “You’re not that girl anymore.”

My silver Lexus ES 350 was further proof, considering my ride out of Dragonfly Lake all those years ago had been in the passenger seat of my friend Holden Henry’s beat-up old puke-green Chevy Impala.

But as soon as I reached the downtown area—the highway becoming Main Street and the speed limit plummeting—I bit down on the inside of my lip, taking in the sight of everything that had once been so familiar. The elementary school, where I’d been the janitor’s daughter. The high school, where I’d been the geeky straight-A student with no social life to speak of. The Dragonfly Diner, where all the kids hung out for fries and shakes—except me.