Open Net

Married for a boat. Staying was never the plan.

Isla MacIsaac has fished the Margaret Rose out of Kestrel Harbour since she was old enough to hold a gaff. Then her great-uncle's will lands on the kitchen table: the boat, the licence and the shed are hers on her thirty-first birthday, but only if she's married. If she isn't, they go to the father who walked out on her.

She has seventy-one days and no prospects. Then NHL goalie Toby Nakamura-Reid, a man who has never stayed anywhere longer than a season, rents the room over her shed for the summer and makes her an offer. Marry me. Mine's free.

The rules are simple. The courthouse, no photos. Nobody in town finds out. Separate rooms. Undo it all by Labour Day. Nobody gets hurt.

But Kestrel Harbour notices everything. And the longer Toby hauls traps at four in the morning, the harder it gets to remember which parts are pretend.

Open Net is a warm, funny small-town romance with a marriage of convenience, a secret wedding, a whole town of meddling neighbours, a very old boat and a guaranteed happy ending. It's a standalone in the Kestrel Harbour series, so you can start here.