The Gala Contract: An Aster Mountain Lodge Novel

Alicia Hanratty knows exactly what to expect from her life. She's got a decent career, a comfortable routine, and a best friend, Cleo, who's always by her side. But when Cleo's engagement takes her two hours up a mountain, loneliness hits Alicia hard. When an uptight lawyer at Cleo's engagement party makes her a strangely formal offer of friendship, she takes it. For the loneliness-not because his unexpected smiles turn her insides into jelly.

Paul Walters is not looking for romance. After ending a four year relationship, he's ready for some breathing room. Only breathing room feels an awful lot like sadness. When he meets a woman who looks as blue as he does at his brother's engagement party, he makes an unconventional request to see her again. It's supposed to be friendship, nothing more-which wouldn't be a problem if Alicia were a little less charming-and a lot less determined to keep him at arm's length.

As they spend more time together-and the wedding gets closer-Paul and Alicia have to answer one question: are they willing to risk their friendship with each other-and their closest friends-for the chance at something more?

This is a slowburn open-door contemporary romance.