Good Bones at Juniper Crossing

Quinn Brandt is everyone’s favorite supporting character. She’s the one who kept the family inn running while her brother came home a hero, the one who feeds the whole town and makes them laugh—and the one nobody ever picks first. Now her brother and his bride-to-be are merging their two properties into one grand lodge, and Quinn is quietly terrified there’s no longer a part for her in the story she spent years holding together.

Benjamin Hale doesn’t do small towns, small talk, or staying. The exacting master builder hired to join the two feuding properties plans to finish the job to his impossible standard and move on. He definitely doesn’t plan on the innkeeper’s sister: the woman who flirted with him at a New Year’s party before she knew who he was, and who now can’t seem to stop making him laugh against his will.

When the town’s matchmaking machine decides Quinn is next—and Benjamin’s nosy admirers won’t take a hint—Quinn proposes a simple deal. He’ll be her plus-one through the wedding season; she’ll keep the casserole brigade off both their backs. Rules are drawn up. Terms are set. It’s convenient. It’s temporary. It’s fake.

But somewhere between sawdust and slow dances, the grumpy builder starts folding Quinn’s secret designs into the renovation—and Quinn starts believing she might be meant for center stage after all. Now the job has an end date, the wedding is coming fast, and the man who never stays is holding a signed contract for somewhere far away.