When Evie Parker takes over By the Book, she's determined to earn her place in Larkhaven Cove-one window display, one nervous smile at a time. Her overly helpful spaniel mix, Bark Twain, is more than ready to assist.

Enter Cal Rivera, the quiet, competent lieutenant from Station Two, who wants a calm winter, steady shifts, and maybe a chance to stop feeling like life keeps starting without him.

Between cocoa from The Toast, gossip as a love language, and borrowed checklists, help turns into something warmer. Then RSVPs stack for Evie's first big author signing-and Cal reports a safety issue to Town Hall. It's the right call for the crowd. It feels like betrayal to her. Can belonging survive the fire code?

By the Book is a cozy small-town rom-com about competence, care, and the mess we make when safety and heart collide. When permits wobble and trust wobbles harder, Evie must decide whether home is something you earn alone-or build with the person willing to risk your big event to protect everyone in the room.

Warm, witty, and closed-door sweet: found family, gentle town interference, a bookish heroine, a steady firefighter, and Bark Twain stealing pens and hearts.

Heat level: closed-door (passionate kissing; fade to black; no on-page intimacy).