Rose Baldwin had done everything right in her marriage. She’d been faithful, honest, loving, and patient when her husband, Harry, kept putting off having children. Three years later, there Harry sits at the annual Sweet Water Sweethearts’ Banquet with his new wife, happy, smug, and with three stepchildren and a baby to dote over.

Rose, on the other hand, their server for the evening, is still devastatingly alone.

Is it any wonder she lies about being engaged?

Derek Fields walked away from his rural life to follow his wife, Stephanie, to the city and a career in corporate America. But they were both unhappy, and Stephanie left him six months ago. Now, Derek is back in his hometown of Sweet Water, North Dakota, taking over the family farm from his grandparents.

When Derek and Rose reunite, after many years and a world of pain, they easily fall into the lie that they are an item. Only neither one of them are good liars, and their hearts are deeply wounded.

Surely, the straw house they’ve built could never survive the wild North Dakota wind.

Or could it?