Hopeless (Chestnut Springs #5) by Elsie Silver; 2024. Softcover.

Beau Eaton is the town prince, a handsome military hero with a tortured past. Bailey Jansen is the outcast bartender, a shy girl from the wrong side of the tracks. He's thirty-five and all man, and she's twenty-two and all...virgin.

He's also her fiancé. Correction: her fake fiancé.

It starts out as a bet, a point for Beau to prove. And it's a win-win: Beau gets a break from his concerned family's prying, and Bailey gets a chance to shed her family's reputation while she saves up to ditch this small town for good. All she has to do is wear his ring, follow his lead, and pretend she can't keep her hands off of him in public. Easy enough, right?

But it's what happens between them in private that blurs all those carefully drawn lines. It's what transpires behind closed doors that doesn't feel like pretending at all. This engagement was supposed to be for show. This agreement? It has an end date.

Beau once told Bailey he'd never fall in love. She's determined to make him change his mind.