Synopsis:
That marriage pact I made with my grumpy, off-limits best friend. That was totally a joke…Right?

It was a heat-of-the-moment agreement scribbled onto the back of a crinkled gas station receipt nine years ago.
“If neither of us are married by age 30, we’ll marry each other.”

Haha! So funny!

Cash moved to a city 500 miles away. Building his billion-dollar empire. Making a name for himself.
Me? I stayed in our gossipy hometown. Working a simple job. Living a simple life.
And we never discussed the marriage pact again.

But I just turned the big three-oh.
And Cash showed up at my door, in the middle of a freaking rainstorm.
Tall, muscled and soaking wet.
With a birthday cake in his hand and a daring smirk that says he means business.

Holy plot twist! Didn’t see that coming!

Now the small town rumor mill is in overdrive.
Cash is dissolving my defences with those sexy half-smiles he saves just for me.
And my brain is exploding with what ifs…

What if we give this a shot?
What if we’re crazy enough to try?
What if we’re good together?

We’ve always been ‘just friends’. We’re experts at playing it safe.
But his skin on my skin leaves me reeling. His oh-so-fiery kisses melt my excuses.
I know our decade-plus friendship is on the line. But I’m aching to see Cash’s wild side.

Review:
I wanted to love this book. It sounded good. The characters clearly liked each other. Unfortunately, there were too many times that they kept pulling themselves back from what they had wanted for so long that their desire almost began to seem as if it were unrequited as neither was willing to actually say how they felt. When the slow burn finally seemed like they were on their way to understanding and moving forward, there was another bump. The spice itself had some very odd prose. The other characters, and friend/family connections were great and well done; especially the grandmother! I did love the last few chapters and how the book ended, but honestly, I had stopped part way through this book to read another then came back just to see how it ended.

Star rating: ✯✯✯
Spice rating: 🌶️