The Emergency Contact

By C.J. Merrick

After a bicycle accident in Westbridge, Nora Vale wakes in the hospital to discover that Eli, the ex she left eleven years ago, is still listed as her emergency contact. Faced with the administrative ghost of a life she thought she had outgrown, Nora tells her mother she is engaged.

She isn't.

To keep the lie alive for one family dinner, Nora recruits Theo Fischer, the warm bakery owner downstairs, to pose as her fianc . He already knows her coffee order. He also has a business to run and a few questions. Nora would prefer the sort with answers she has already prepared.

One dinner becomes family photos, Hawthorne gossip, public congratulations, and a fake relationship that stops feeling fake long before either of them is ready to say so.

But pretending to be in love is becoming easier than telling the truth. As their arrangement grows harder to contain, Nora must decide what she's willing to risk when one family dinner starts looking like something real.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 106588804X
• ISBN13: 9781065888048
• Release Date: February 2027
• Publisher: Lakeglass Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"