She's on the run with nowhere to go. He's the grumpy innkeeper who offers her a roof...and maybe a way to stay.

Gayle lives by a simple creed: work hard, plan for the worst, and pray for the best. Her life has been a relentless pursuit of stability until one devastating event turns her into a fugitive. Forced to leave the island she calls home, Gayle flees the island she calls home, the life she built and the family she loves.

Crescent Bay is supposed to be a temporary stop. But when she arrives in the sleepy coastal town in the middle of a stormy spring night, a desperate favor leads her to Jiraiya Emerson: a brooding innkeeper with a struggling Bed & Breakfast and no patience for strangers.

Their deal is simple: she'll help revive the inn, and he'll give her a job and a place to stay. Between the town's quirky charm, the freedom from her past, and the quiet intensity of the man she's living with, Gayle starts to imagine a new kind of future when her haunting reality presents a hopeless dilemma. Unable to return home, and with only three months to stay in the country, her only solution is a marriage of convenience to the one man who sees through her walls and makes her feel truly alive.

Perfect for lovers of grumpy x sunshine, marriage of convenience, slow burn chemistry, and emotional Black romance with heart.