Marriage Clause

Ivy Bennett and Nate Calloway have been rival bakers on the same street for eight years, fighting over flour deliveries, county fair ribbons, and a decade-old family feud neither of them ever bothered to question. Then their landlord dies — and they discover she was secretly the same person the entire time, and her will leaves them the building jointly under one impossible condition: get legally married within thirty days, or lose everything to a parking garage. Marrying your worst enemy for inheritance reasons should be simple. Practical. Strictly business. But somewhere between a rushed courthouse wedding, a shared kitchen, and a town festival that refuses to let them keep pretending this is just paperwork, Ivy and Nate start uncovering a family history neither of them ever knew — and a connection neither of them can keep dismissing as rivalry. When an old flame resurfaces working for the very company trying to demolish their street, old wounds and new doubts threaten to undo everything they've started to build. Ivy and Nate will have to decide whether to repeat the same fear-shaped mistake their parents made one generation earlier, or finally choose the harder, honest thing instead. A heartwarming, clean enemies-to-lovers romance about inherited grudges, found trust, and falling for the person you spent eight years insisting you couldn't stand — perfect for fans of marriage of convenience, small-town charm, and banter that turns into something real.