Violet Quinn does not believe in forever.

She believes in structure. In clean lines. In distance. In a life carefully designed to keep her safe.

When she flies from Chicago to a mist-shrouded coastal town for her best friend's wedding, Violet expects polite small talk, forced smiles, and a quick escape back to her glass-and-steel life. What she does not expect is Daniel Cole.

Ten years ago, Daniel was the man she loved and left without explanation. The man whose life she walked out of in the middle of the night because happiness felt too dangerous to stay. Now he's standing across the rehearsal dinner table from her, broader, quieter, still devastatingly familiar - and very much not over her.

With the wedding binding them together for a few short days, Violet and Daniel make a reckless agreement: no past, no future, no promises. Just a temporary truce. Just a few days.

What begins as controlled, physical release quickly unravels into something far more dangerous. Old wounds surface. Long-buried truths demand to be spoken. And beneath the rules meant to keep them safe, the gravity between them grows impossible to deny.

As vows are exchanged around them and the tide pulls relentlessly out to sea, Violet is forced to confront the truth she has spent a decade avoiding: the life she built may be flawless, but it is also empty. And Daniel is not just a memory - he is a choice.

But some people are wired to build walls. Some loves do not fit neatly into the lives we create. And sometimes, wanting is not enough to make staying possible.