If there were a course in screwing up your life, Kate Spivey earned an A+. Trust is in short supply for Kate at the start of the summer before her senior year of college. Sentenced to spend it under the watchful eye of her aunt at the Willoughby Inn, Kate needs to prove that she has learned from her mistakes. Almost immediately, Kate finds herself drawn to someone else who can understand the unfairness of being judged without all the facts. Reed Black has had his own share of regrets, but instead of trying to fight his reputation, he embraces it. When Reed offers to give her a crash course in the romanticized history of the tragic love story that made the Willoughby Inn famous, Kate is unable to resist playing along. The warnings to stay away from him only serve to him more appealing. As sparks fly between Kate and Reed, his mixed signals remind Kate that she needs to watch her step. If she wants to get her life back on track, she has to ignore how her growing attraction to him. Just like the characters in the Willoughby Inn story, anything more than friends is strictly off-limits.