Nell has a key to Wade Renner's house. Marrying him was never supposed to be the price of belonging there.

For years, she has been the person who shows up: for her best friend Del, for Del's younger brother Beck, for the ordinary emergencies that make a family. But when a custody dispute threatens Beck's home, all Nell's devotion amounts to nothing on paper.

Wade has a solution. Eighteen months of marriage. Separate rooms. Financial security. A promise that he will take responsibility for telling his daughter.

Nell says yes for a boy she loves. She does not plan on wanting the guarded man who has finally made a place for her-or discovering how lonely that place can feel when he cannot say why he needs her to stay.

Their signatures might help them face a courtroom. They cannot protect Del's trust, or keep a practical arrangement from becoming painfully real.

Nell knows how to make herself indispensable. This time, she needs to know whether her husband would choose her even if she stopped being useful.