She's trying to escape her past. .

. Hitting the reset button with the help of a friend from back home in Boston, all Margaret Michaels is hoping for is a fresh start.

And it doesn't get much fresher than the seaside hamlet of Townsend Harbor. Handed a place to live and a job as a bartender in the town's most popular nautical-themed pub, she's been given a hell of a head start--for once in her life.

There's only one problem. She's never tended bar a day in her life.

A fact that a certain studly regular seems all too eager to point out. He's trying to build a future.

. .

Deputy Trent McGarvey loves two things: leggy redheads, and a good craft cocktail at the end of a long shift. And though he's relatively recent transplant to Townsend Harbor from a seedy beat in Albuquerque, he knows just where to find both.

Or did, until the smart-mouthed sprite who doesn't know a Manhattan from a Mojito took over for the gastropub's well-loved, willowy martini maven. And yet, the more McGarvey learns about fiery Maggie Michaels, the more he can't help but notice that the evidence isn't quite lining up with the story the messy mixologist provides him.

But if there's anything McGarvey loves-okay, three things-it's a mystery. When an after-hours crash course in cocktails leaves their thinking as muddled as the mint, the passionate fling that ensues could leave both their long-term prospects within Townsend Harbor on the rocks.

. .