Knot on My Watch: A Fake Engagement, Forced Proximity MM Romance

Rory Bell makes chaos beautiful. As a high-end New York wedding planner, he’s built a career on flawless execution and holding everything together. But when his business partner vanishes with forty thousand dollars in client deposits just three weeks before a celebrity wedding, Rory’s carefully structured life begins to fracture. Desperate to save his company, he travels to a remote Adirondack mountain lodge to pull off the event of his career—only to walk straight into the worst blizzard of the decade.

Leo Mercer fixes broken things. A retired FDNY firefighter, he poured his life savings and his physical scars into rebuilding Knotty Pines Lodge. He’s a man who understands structural integrity, load-bearing walls, and the safety of keeping his distance. When a stressed, beautiful, hyper-competent wedding planner arrives and starts redesigning his venue in the middle of a snowstorm, Leo knows exactly the kind of trouble he’s looking at.

When a flooded cabin forces them to share a single room, the professional boundaries begin to thaw. And when a viral video accidentally thrusts them into the internet’s spotlight, Leo tells a desperate lie to protect Rory’s failing company: he claims they’re engaged.

Now, trapped in a glass conservatory while a storm rages outside and a vindictive saboteur tries to frame Rory for federal fraud, the fake engagement starts to feel dangerously real. Rory has spent his whole life proving he isn’t disposable. Leo has spent his life believing he’s only worth what he can rescue. To survive the weekend, they’ll have to do the one thing neither of them knows how to do: let go and let someone else carry the weight.