Cody McKendrick's uncle Max (who raised him from the time his parents died when he was 6) has just died and left some crazy terms of inheritance for Cody and his sister and brother. He's arranged for spouses for each of them – they have 48 hours to bond and then a joint wedding with various inheritance penalties for those who refuse. For Cody Max has brought in Callie Sheridan, the woman who Cody eloped with 7 years ago when she was 17 and he was 24. Only Callie disappeared during the honeymoon before they could consummate... Now she's actually registered as a mail order bride with a company Max owned, so she doesn't know it's Cody she's meeting! But the terms of the will entice Callie to go along with Cody to his ranch for the 48 hour period.
There's a good deal of mistrust between them – not only because Callie left him but her father and brother showed up (in Mexico 7 years ago) with a ransom note and Cody lost all his inheritance from his parents and was prisoned as a result of the con they tried to pull! Callie eventually convinces him that she wasn't involved with the con, but her father and brother are back to their old tricks and show up at the ranch threatening Callie if she doesn't go along with the con, setting fires, kidnapping a prize bull and turning him lose in Cody's cabin's bedroom, etc. Will Callie be able to tough it out this time (she fled last time to spare Cody from her family)? Will Cody still want to marry her? Will they rediscover their true love?
So yeah, not one of my favorite plots – I'm not partial to either the wacky wills or the horrible families – but it was well written. It's all over within 48 hours but given the history between Cody and Callie that shortness isn't a problem – the two of them are clearly in love from the start, just have a few misunderstandings to work out. And given their ages the long separation from their first marriage wasn't terribly problematic for me, although it does strike me as odd that neither of them got an annulment so their first marriage is still legal – or rather what struck me as odd is that they didn't make a big deal out of that. But yeah, the book worked well given all of the above.
