In Gauthier, love isn’t just found. It’s forever.

Tamryn West, Ph.D., did not plan to swap Boston lecture halls for dirt roads, a failing radiator, or a surprise motorcycle rescue. But a research grant leads her to Gauthier, Louisiana, where the past opens doors she never meant to knock on, including the one belonging to Matthew Gauthier, the lawyer who avoided her calls and showed up anyway with dimples fully deployed.

Matt knows the town’s legacy like second nature, a generational inheritance he’d rather protect than narrate. The Gauthier Law Firm has long been the heartbeat of quiet justice, and Matt guards his family history the same way he wins a case, carefully, privately, and without extra commentary. Charming? Occasionally. Cooperative? Never on the first request, or the twentieth.

Their collision begins with a ride into town, luggage retrieved like a good deed that came with invisible fine print, and a quiet spark that grows louder than expected. Archives and chance meetings steer their summer off course, but their journey to happily ever after is worth the ride.