The Off-Season: A Small-Town Romantic Comedy

She flew in to shut the place down. She didn't plan on the innkeeper. Helen Cole closes failing businesses for a living. She flies in, finds the leak, writes the report, and is gone before anyone learns her first name. Clean. Surgical. No attachments, no mess, no looking back—exactly how she's run her whole life for the last twelve years. So when her firm sends her to a crumbling seaside inn on the coast of Maine with orders to fix it or recommend the wrecking ball, Helen books a one-week stay and a return flight she fully intends to use. Then she meets Frank Brennan. He can't read a spreadsheet to save his life—but he knows the name of every guest's grandmother and exactly how they take their coffee. Frank has run the Gull's Rest for nineteen years, ever since the divorce that took everything except the deed and the dog. He's given the place away one free breakfast at a time, and it's about to cost him the only home he's ever loved. He does not need a sharp-suited stranger telling him his life is a liability with a sea view. The numbers say close it. The town says fight. And Helen—who has never once been wrong, and never once stayed—suddenly can't make herself write the ending. What follows is one impossible summer of broken boilers and big arguments, a wedding that goes spectacularly off the rails, a power outage that traps two stubborn people in the only room with a working fireplace, and the world's most opinionated golden retriever determined to adopt them both. Helen came to save the inn. She's starting to suspect the thing that actually needs saving is the part of her that forgot how to stay. The Off-Season is a warm, witty, laugh-out-loud second-chance romance about late starts, found family, and the kind of love that shows up exactly when you've stopped expecting it. If you love small-town charm, slow-burn chemistry, grumpy-meets-sunshine sparks, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after, this one's for you. Perfect for readers who love:- Heartwarming small-town romance- Later-in-life leads who've earned their happy ending- Found family and a town full of scene-stealers- Clean & wholesome romance (medium heat, fade-to-black, no explicit content)- A dog who steals every scene he's in- Humor and heart in equal measure No cheating. No cliffhangers. No love triangles. Just two people who stopped believing in second chances—and one summer that changes everything. One-click and check in to the Gull's Rest today.