THE CO-OP

Two former flames agree to get married for as long as it takes to flip the run-down apartment they’ve inherited together.

LaRynn Lavigne and Deacon Leeds haven’t laid eyes on each other since the summer in Santa Cruz when they had a brief fling as teenagers. The relationship didn’t last, but it made enough of an impact that when they’re finally face to face again, a decade later, they have to figure out how to exist around each other. Total avoidance isn’t a possibility, because their grandmothers—who were married to each other and both recently died—left them a shared inheritance of a ramshackle apartment, and LaRynn and Deacon have to figure out the best way to fix it up and sell it for a profit. The only snag in their plan is that LaRynn can’t access the money they need in her trust fund until she gets married, and Deacon can’t use his construction skills to do the repair work without said funds. When the idea of tying the knot comes up between them, they reluctantly agree to a temporary union: stay hitched for as long as it takes to renovate the house, then go their separate ways. Living in the apartment while they fix it up, they’re sharing a space that lacks most of its walls, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of emotional barriers still in place. As their forced proximity also forces LaRynn and Deacon into some tough but long-needed conversations, it begins to lead them to the realization that the intense feelings they had for each other still burn just as hot as they did during that summer 10 years ago. DeWitt’s latest romance is less about two people finding love and more about how they rediscover a love that never truly disappeared. Through dual timelines and points of view, we’re offered a window into both the evolution of Deacon and LaRynn’s romance and their incredibly satisfying, hard-earned road to a happily-ever-after.

A swoony slow-burn romance that lives in the little moments.