Accidental Runaway Groom

On her way to a wedding, Jamie Montgomery stops for a groom standing at the side of the road. She is not the bride, and he never meant to run away. That odd meeting leaves a mark on both of them.

Six months later she is back in Clover Lake. Sharp McBride is single now, not especially heartbroken, and has become her closest friend. Neither of them wants the friendship to stay just that.

Jamie does not know where Sharp's heart belongs. She does not want to be the one who breaks whatever is left of it. She is also in town only for a short time, and she doubts she is suited to small-town life.

Sharp is a grumpy rancher, and the friends-to-lovers romance belongs to the next generation strand of the Montgomery World and Clover Lake series. Each book reads as a standalone, and the ending is a happy one. The open question is whether Jamie, who has to be careful, ends up being the one who runs.