Eliza McDavid is done with dating. Every man she meets does nothing for her. After years of abuse, she knows she wants safety—but most of all, she wants love. Each of her sisters has her own passion, and Eliza thinks she's found hers when she decides to open her own coffee bar. But she doesn't have a clue how to run one. She knows someone who does, however, but he won't give her the time of day.

Until he does.

Coleson Katz's reputation is worse than the sludge shoveled off the ice between periods of a hockey game. He has made some bad personal choices, so when it's time for him to be called up to the NHL, no one wants to give him a chance. He's told that the only way to fix his reputation is by finding a wife, but he wants to do anything other than that. Who would want to marry a hockey player who is known for sleeping around?

But then he's reminded that Eliza wants to learn how to operate a coffee shop. He owns one of those, has been running it his whole life. He proposes a trade. His coffee shop in exchange for a year of her life in a fake marriage to him.

Easy peasy.

Or so he thinks.