THE LUCK YOU LEFT BEHIND

A St. Patrick’s Day Rom-Com

Nora O’Brien has a system. Color-coded. Airtight. Five years of proof that it works.

She runs Chicago’s most sought-after event firm with a planning wall that has never failed her, a vendor network she’d die for, and exactly one rule she has never broken: keep the personal out of the professional. She built that rule the summer after junior year, when her best friend kissed her at a house party, accepted a job in London the next morning, and sent a text she never answered. She took everything she felt, put it somewhere useful, and built something real with it.

She is fine. She has always been fine.

Then the Harrington Group — her most important client, a third of her annual revenue, the gala that could change everything — hires Clover & Co. to produce Chicago’s most exclusive St. Patrick’s Day event. The venue is a restored 1920s ballroom on the North Side. Perfect bones. Irreplaceable timeline. The most beautiful event space she has ever walked into.

The owner, she discovers at the first site visit, is Declan Marsh.

Declan, who kissed her on a dare that didn’t feel like a dare. Who left for London the next morning without telling her he’d been interviewing for six months. Who sent one text she has never — not once, not ever — replied to. Who is now standing in her venue looking like five years of becoming someone better, which is deeply, specifically inconvenient.

She needs his ballroom. He needs three weeks to show her who he became. The gala needs to happen regardless.

Twenty-one days. One restored ballroom. A signature cocktail that will not cooperate. An alderman with strong opinions about centrepieces. A florist named Bridget who tells everyone everything. And somewhere between the planning wall and the mezzanine and the thing she drafted seventeen times and never sent — Nora’s very sensible five-year system starts to come apart.

Second chance. Forced proximity. A grand gesture built from the words she never said. The kind of rom-com where she built an entire career on not thinking about him — and he came back and bought her venue.

One buyer. One story. Exclusively yours.

TROPES:
• Second Chance Romance
• Forced Proximity
• She Built Her Whole Life On Not Thinking About Him
• He Came Back With A Plan
• The Unanswered Text
• Ticking Clock
• Grand Gesture Done Right
• St. Patrick’s Day Chicago Rom-Com

HEAT LEVEL: Sweet rom-com — all the tension, all the feels, doors firmly closed.

Perfect for fans of: Beth O’Leary, Josie Silver, Alexis Hall, and Sophie Kinsella