After leaving a long-term relationship and a career that drained her dry, Bailey Cook, hoping for a fresh start, opens her dream bakery in the sleepy mountain town of Lavender Bluff. She doesn’t expect her next-door work neighbor to be a perpetually scowling mechanic who treats kindness with suspicion.

Ryan Wilder doesn’t like change and finds it suspicious when his new neighbor comes in, smiling like she has never known struggle. After the loss of his brother and sister-in-law brought him back to Lavender Bluff, he has spent the last five years focused on making sure he raised his niece and made them proud. He doesn’t have time for sweet words or wayward feelings.

But Bailey’s sweet persistence, a dead car battery, and Ryan’s teenaged niece who loves to bake (AND matchmake) push them closer than either of them planned. As Bailey rebuilds her life and Ryan fights the fear of losing anyone else he cares about, friendship quietly turns into something neither of them saw coming.