October at the Maple

October was supposed to be Celia Whitcomb's last month at the Maple House.

She returns to Brackett, Vermont, to help her mother survive one final foliage season, organize the sale of their century-old inn, and get back to the hospitality-consulting career she built three hours away. The plan is practical, clean, and temporary - until the restoration contractor on the porch turns out to be Eric Beaudry, the former best friend she once nearly built a life with.

Eric never left Brackett. He restores old buildings for a living, and he knows the Maple needs more than nostalgia to survive. As he and Celia work side by side through sold-out weekends, staffing crises, deferred repairs, and a serious purchase offer with an October deadline, their old ease returns along with an attraction that is anything but convenient.

But the inn is not the only thing asking to change. Celia must decide whether staying can be a choice rather than a trap, while Eric confronts the possibility that leaving town for a career opportunity does not make him disloyal.

With the leaves falling and the sale clock running, they have one month to decide what deserves preserving - and what has to change if they want a future together.

Warm, intimate, and autumn-soaked, October at the Maple is a small-town contemporary romance about homecoming, ambition, family obligation, and two people learning that love should make room for both of their lives.