Retired fencing Olympian Hugo De la Vega lives a quiet life in Olive Township. He has his friends, his olive orchard, and a recurring daydream about what he would say to his father's murderer if given the chance to look him in the eyes.

True crime podcaster Mallory Hawkins arrives in the eclectic small desert town with one purpose: to investigate Hugo's father's unsolved murder from twenty years ago.

A chance meeting at a sandwich shop has Hugo harmlessly flirting with Mallory, until he realizes she's the stubborn woman who has been hounding him for months. Hugo's swift and emphatic refusal to support her investigation forces Mallory to reveal her personal connection to the case.

Now Hugo is spending time with the woman whose emails he once deleted. She's witty, eternally curious, and pregnant. Finding this out should make it easier for Hugo to deny the magnetic pull he feels toward her, but it has the opposite effect.

When a situation threatens Mallory and her baby's safety, Hugo finds himself moving her into his house at the orchard. Now they're splitting time between a search for justice and fighting their mutual attraction... until a middle of the night encounter in the kitchen has them taking their relationship from professional to personal.

With each passing day, Hugo gets closer to laying it all out on the line for Mallory.

As long as the killer doesn't get to her first.

Hugo is the second in a four-book contemporary romance series inspired by the film The Princess Bride. Expect swoon, sass, spice, and happily ever afters.