Only on the lake. Only right now. Only in summer.

Everyone knows Eleanor Florek. Born and raised in Barry’s Bay and now a reporter at the local paper, she’s the town’s golden girl. Yet Eleanor dreams of owning her own cottage on the lake—a place far from prying eyes to let loose without judgment. (You try having a fling when the most gossipy of your six aunts lives one floor below you.)

When Eleanor finally saves enough to buy a small A-frame, she doesn’t anticipate the place next door will be knocked down to make way for a monstrous lake house and its handsome new owner.

Eleanor intends to give him a piece of her mind—tearing down a charming original cottage, what gall—but before she gets the chance, he vanishes, leaving the house next door empty for years. It suits Eleanor perfectly.

When Owen Kolstad suddenly returns, Eleanor is loath to share her secluded bay with this much too serious Viking in chinos. All she wants is solitude, but something about Owen keeps drawing her in.

Owen has his own reasons for escaping to the lake, and becoming friends with Eleanor is the absolute last thing he anticipated. A connection like theirs is impossible to ignore, but neither is ready to fall in love—not now, maybe not ever, and definitely not this summer.