She used to babysit her daughter. Now she's the woman keeping her awake at night. At forty-seven, Darla Keene knows how to hold everything together. Her construction company. Her family. A hundred-and-thirty-year-old house overlooking Lake Michigan. What she doesn't know is what to do when Maddie Ross walks back into her kitchen looking like temptation in a silk shirt. Maddie is thirty now. A brilliant interior designer with copper-pink hair, a wicked mouth, and absolutely no intention of making herself smaller for another woman. She's also Darla's daughter's best friend. Eight years ago, one lingering glance changed everything between them. Neither woman has forgotten it. Now they're working shoulder to shoulder to restore Rutherford House before Darla's daughter's wedding. Eighteen weeks of late nights, close quarters, and an attraction neither can afford to acknowledge. Except Maddie has never been particularly good at following rules. And Darla is discovering that some rules were made to be broken. What starts with stolen glances becomes something neither woman can control. But in a small town where everyone knows everyone, keeping their relationship secret might be easier than admitting what they mean to each other. And when the future of the restoration project comes under threat, they'll have to decide whether they're willing to risk their careers, reputations, and carefully constructed lives for a love neither saw coming. Because Maddie refuses to be anyone's secret. And Darla is finally ready to stop hiding. An intensely steamy, emotionally charged sapphic romance featuring a seventeen-year age gap, forbidden attraction, a late-blooming awakening, praise kink, and a hard-won happily-ever-after.