Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Decca Crowley, is no stranger to death.

Between traveling all over the state of Tennessee to investigate skeletal remains, responding to mass casualty events with her team, and sitting in bedside vigils as a death doula in her "time off," she's exhausted. She’s run herself ragged in her attempt to avoid facing the dark shadows that lurk in her rundown, inherited home. And the even darker ones that live in her heart.

Putting in more work hours also meant putting off any hope of a love life. That part’s been easy.

Until now.

Her good friend (and not-so-secret crush) Gus, has just graduated from Greek Orthodox seminary, and in order to be ordained as a priest, he must marry—or else serve as a monk. For Gus, lifelong celibacy is a fate worse than death.

Purely out of the goodness of her heart—or so she's convinced herself—the practical and selfless Decca proposes a marriage-of-convenience. He’s desperate for the companionship; and she could definitely use someone to talk to when she comes home (other than the 200 year-old skeleton she's piecing together on her dining room table.)

But she didn't really think he'd say yes.

When the bride and groom finally start to admit their long-held, more-than-platonic feelings for each other, it could be the end of their cozy arrangement. There's too much at stake to fall in love and risk their marriage.

But if they find the right framework--the bones of love--it could be their key to happiness.

• religion part 1: (There is no religious conversion, or any desire to convert either main character.) Gus is a Greek Orthodox seminarian who becomes a priest. Naturally, he views almost everything through the lens of his faith and his inner monologues and his dialogue reflects this. Please consider if you might be negatively impacted by quotes from the Bible and other religious texts. However, if you're expecting a saintly man, that's not Gus. Gus is much more progressive/liberal in his views than Orthodoxy really allows in their dogma. The bad decisions of his past still haunt him. Also, he curses. A lot more than a priest probably should.
  
• religion part 2: Decca practices an ancestor-based Appalachian folk, or Granny, witchcraft and lovingly calls herself a kitchen witch. 
  
• alcohol consumption
  
• death of minor character
  
• sexually suggestive and explicit scenes
  
• cancer (mentions of past and current)
  
• deathcare & mortuary work with some clinical gore: Includes the mention of the death of a small child. This is not written for shock value (gore for the sake of gore), but it’s important for the character work.
  
• pregnancy (minor character)
• cheating (mentions of past and MMC redemption)
  
• grief and loss
  

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