Ruby Barclay knows she isn’t marrying for love. Love was never the plan. After losing her parents at the age of sixteen and fighting the state for guardianship of her siblings, Ruby is a pragmatist, not a romantic. And Wesley Landry, a fellow surgeon, is her best option for a safe and stable future. That is until she catches him with the florist’s assistant moments before their wedding ceremony.

For five years now, Ethan Shuff has watched the love of his life plan her future with another man, a man not even close to worthy of her. Ethan had helped Ruby fight for her siblings. He’d driven her back and forth to med school, then to her residency. He’d only held off on telling her his feelings because she was so determined to have the perfect life, a life he wasn’t sure he could give her as a cowboy working with underprivileged kids on the side. He’d only come to her wedding to close that unrequited chapter of his life for good.

But perhaps it wasn’t as unrequited as he thought. Because when Ruby falls into his arms for comfort at the church after Wesley’s betrayal, they both feel something. He can see it in her eyes. So, when she begs him to whisk her away from the wedding on his motorcycle, Ethan is more than happy to oblige.

And even as Ruby tries to convince herself she feels nothing for Ethan but friendship, her repeated dreams of him kissing her say otherwise.