Having already given marriage a shot --- for all of 24 hours during a Las Vegas fling --- furniture artisan Meli Hynes still made her choice. The wood-crafting shop that is her family legacy will always come first. But when her uncle decides to sell to a competitor, Meli’s promised inheritance goes belly-up. She’ll do anything to muddle the deal. Including a marriage of convenience to an unforgettable and very practical old friend --- the competitor’s son, Aaron. With a controlling family of his own, Aaron is in. After all, this isn’t the first time he and Meli got hitched on a whim. The rules of the ruse are simple: public displays of affection and live together as happy newlyweds. The hardest rule of all? Never let real feelings get in the way of what they plan to be a purely professional second time around.

Raised by her fiercely passionate and free-spirited grandmother, Julia Hope has never gone without love. But as she tends to her only living relative during her final days, Julia struggles to overcome her fear of being alone. A thousand miles away, Matt Gatlin has managed to avoid the coldhearted grandmother with whom he once lived. But after 12 years of her being blessedly out of sight, she needs him. His resentments still raw, Matt packs up his car and reluctantly heads to California to confront a bitter past he thought was long gone. Over the next six days, Julia’s and Matt’s fates intersect. An old diary exposes the tragedy of a long-lost love. A history of secrets in two families comes to light. And on a lonely back road, Matt picks up an unusual yet captivating hitchhiker with a secret of her own.