Darling Daffodils Farm

The novel opens in March, when 26-year-old Tally Darling reluctantly drives into Hope Harbor, a small New England town where her family owns Darling Daffodils Farm, a 10-acre flower farm that hosts weddings and an annual Daffodil Festival. Tally's older sister, Penny, has summoned her home to help their mother, Gail, prepare for the upcoming wedding season. Their father, Peter Darling, died several months earlier, and Penny, still reeling from her own broken engagement, can no longer manage Gail's grief alone.

Though everyone in the family believes Tally is a restless wanderer who left Hope Harbor eight years ago on a whim, the truth is more complicated. She has been working seasonal kitchen jobs to save money for culinary school, unable to afford tuition without forcing her parents to mortgage the farm. Her father was the only person who knew her real plan: to eventually return and open a bakery.

Driving through town, Tally runs into Eli Davis, a former professional hockey player who runs The Ice Cream Barn, and Rayna McGovern, who leads the Liberty Ladies, a local women's auxiliary group. Both tell her to say hi to Walker, a name she does not recognize. Her best friend, Rosie, who owns a brewery adjacent to the farm, refuses to explain. At the farmhouse, Tally enters her childhood bedroom and finds a tall, nearly naked man gripping a towel after a shower. The man is Jesse Walker, a 34-year-old agricultural worker whom Peter hired the previous year to improve the farm's soil and extend the wedding season. After Peter died, Walker moved into the main house while Gail relocated to a cottage on the property. Penny arrives and explains the arrangement, but neither sister understands why their mother ceded so much control to a stranger. Walker discloses that he signed an agreement with Peter and Gail regarding the farm, bound by a nondisclosure agreement he cannot break.

Walker's perspective reveals his motivations. His primary goal is to provide a stable home for his younger sister, Billie, and her young son, Quinn. He planned to bring Billie, who has a degree in hospitality and event management, onto the farm to manage weddings, giving her a reason to relocate. Tally's return threatens that plan.

Tally and Walker clash over control of the farm. He assigns her menial tasks while refusing to explain why he has covered sections of tulip beds with tarps. When Tally and Penny find a letter in the fireplace from Frank Seymour, the holder of an outstanding loan on the farm who has long pressured Peter to sell, offering to buy the property, their suspicions deepen. Penny theorizes Walker may be deliberately running the farm into the ground so he or Frank can buy it cheaply. Tally recruits Eli, Fletcher Matthews (Hope Harbor's widowed mayor), and local volunteers to remove the coverings. When Walker and Gail return, they are devastated: Walker had been using the tarps to delay blooming so the flowers would remain vibrant for late-May weddings, a strategy critical to the farm's income. Gail confirms the letter was simply an unwanted purchase offer that Walker rejected on her behalf. Tally realizes she has severely damaged the farm's prospects.

That night, Walker finds Tally in the dark fields, injured from trying to drag sandbags back over the tulips alone. He carries her inside. She tearfully apologizes, admitting she was wrong about him and confessing how lost she feels without her father. For the first time, their antagonism gives way to genuine vulnerability.

They begin cooperating. Tally cooks dinner nightly, and they settle into a domestic routine of growing trust and attraction. At a farmers market hosted at Rosie's brewery, Penny photographs Walker in a cowboy hat for the farm's social media. The images go viral. Eli shares the post, and Daniel Hall, a famous hockey player, contacts the farm about hosting a vow renewal for himself and his wife, Hannah, a well-known author. The event could be a financial lifeline.

After the Daffodil Festival, during which Tally nominates Walker as a candidate for grand marshal, the two kiss for the first time in the wildflower meadow during a rainstorm. Walker carries Tally to a cottage he has been secretly renovating for Billie and Quinn, and they spend the night together. Tally reveals she has been accepted to the New England Culinary Institute for the fall and plans to work in Nantucket over the summer. They agree to a secret relationship with an expiration date.

The town rallies to prepare for the Hall event, with volunteers renovating the farm's cottages for the wedding party. Walker's internal narration reveals the farm's dire finances: Peter took out a loan from Frank Seymour with a large lump-sum balloon payment due June 1. Meanwhile, Walker secretly coordinates with Fletcher, Eli, and Rayna to restore a shuttered bakery downtown as a surprise for Tally.

The morning of the ceremony, the refrigerator in the catering kitchen breaks, destroying the professionally made wedding cake. Walker turns to Tally with complete confidence and secures access to the commercial kitchen at Mabel's, the shuttered bakery. Tally spends the day baking a seven-tier buttercream cake cascading with wildflowers and daffodils from the farm. Hannah photographs the cake for social media, where the post goes viral again. The vow renewal is a triumph, and Walker asks Tally to be his girlfriend publicly. She agrees.

Walker takes Tally on a formal first date and later surprises her by fixing the broken porch banister and adding rocking chairs and lavender planters, completing a project her father never finished.

The financial crisis intensifies. Frank contacts Walker, claiming that the transfer of partial farm ownership to Walker violates the original loan agreement. Frank calls the entire loan due, threatening foreclosure. Walker and Gail decide to sell the wildflower meadows to raise cash, but Gail makes Walker promise not to tell Tally or Penny, fearing Tally will abandon her dreams out of obligation. Working with Fletcher, Walker arranges for the town to purchase the meadows through a municipal conservation fund, ensuring nothing can ever be built there. He also signs papers distributing shared ownership of the farm equally among Tally, Penny, Gail, Billie, and himself.

At a hair salon, one of the Liberty Ladies accidentally reveals that Peter took out a large loan and that Walker now owns part of the farm. Tally feels betrayed, not because Walker acted maliciously but because he kept the truth from her despite their intimacy. She and Penny leave town without telling Walker. That evening, Tally confides in Penny about her dream of opening a bakery in Hope Harbor and declines the summer job in Nantucket.

The next morning, Tally returns to the farm and finds Walker in the meadows. He tells her everything: His grandfather lost the land to her grandfather in a poker game decades ago, fueling generations of bitterness. Peter sought Walker out because he understood Walker's connection to the land and needed someone equally invested to save the farm. The meadows are permanently protected, and shared ownership has been distributed to all five of them. Walker tells Tally he loves her and urges her to pursue her dreams, promising the farm is safe. Tally reveals she has already turned down the Nantucket job and wants to stay in Hope Harbor, open a bakery, and build a life with him.

Walker reveals his final surprise: with help from the community, he has restored Mabel's bakery and renamed it Whisk and Wildflowers Bakery. Gail explains that Peter's plan had always been to sell some land so each daughter could pursue her own dream. Billie and Quinn move into the farmhouse, Gail returns to the master bedroom, and Walker and Tally settle into the wildflower cottage. At the Spring Fling, Walker is crowned grand marshal and delivers a speech thanking the community and Tally for transforming his life. The couple dances in the flower fields as Tally shares every remaining dream with the man she loves.