Ben dies after a moving truck strikes him while cycling home from the pharmacy.

Susan refuses to acknowledge Elsie as Ben's wife at the hospital and takes his belongings.

Elsie meets Ben at Georgie's Pizza on New Year's Day and agrees to give him her number.

Ben takes Elsie on their first date — a long drive, a Mexican restaurant, and late-night gelato.

Elsie and Ben make a five-week pact and sleep together for the first time after dinner at Beachcomber.

Ben accidentally confesses his love for Elsie on the final day of their five-week deal, and she reciprocates.

Elsie and Susan clash over Ben's funeral arrangements, and Susan seizes control of the burial plans.

Elsie attends Ben's funeral and speaks at the cemetery as mourners bury his casket.

Susan arrives unannounced at Elsie's apartment to apologize and proposes they start over as friends.

Elsie punches a man at the library, and Susan urges her to take leave and stay in Newport Beach.

Elsie stays at Susan's Newport Beach home, watches movies, swims, and begins to genuinely feel better.

Elsie and Ben decide to elope and begin driving together toward Las Vegas.

Elsie and Susan drive to the cemetery and each say what they need to say to Ben at his grave.

Elsie and Ben exchange vows in a Las Vegas chapel and are married.

Elsie cashes Ben's check and donates hundreds of young adult books to the library in his memory.

Elsie Porter's life changes forever when her husband Ben is killed in a tragic accident just nine days after their secret Las Vegas elopement. The novel reveals their intense six-month romance through flashbacks, showing how quickly and completely they fell for each other. After Ben's death, Elsie is consumed by grief and struggles to be recognized as his wife, especially by his mother Susan, who had no idea Elsie existed. A turning point arrives when Susan unexpectedly apologizes and the two women begin building an unlikely friendship rooted in shared loss. Susan becomes Elsie's guide through grief, helping her pack Ben's belongings, inviting her to Newport Beach to recover, and ultimately visiting Ben's grave together. By the novel's end, Elsie honors Ben's memory by donating young adult books to the library, reclaiming her purpose and stepping forward into her life.

The central story of love, loss, and healing.

Ana ends the New Year's Eve party drunk and making out with a stranger, while Elsie walks home alone.

Ben crawls through Elsie's doggie door to help her after she locks herself out before their first date.

Elsie tells Ana everything about Ben, and they agree he might be her soulmate.

Ben visits Elsie's library on a holiday and helps elderly patron George find a book for his great-granddaughter.

Ben and Elsie argue about his ex Amber, and Ben changes his voicemail greeting to signal his full commitment.

Elsie and Ana meet the funeral director, who has no record of Elsie's marriage to Ben.

Elsie calls her parents to announce Ben's death and reveals for the first time that they were secretly married.

Elsie repeatedly dials Ben's phone number just to hear his voicemail greeting.

Susan delivers her eulogy at Ben's funeral, telling the story of a secret message he once wrote in soap on a mirror.

Ben has breakfast with Susan intending to tell her about Elsie but leaves without saying anything.

Ana accuses Elsie of being selfish about her grief, and the two friends have a serious falling out.

Susan helps Elsie pack all of Ben's belongings; Susan finds Ben's pillow, presses her face into it, and weeps.

Elsie arranges a leave of absence from the library and Ana agrees to watch her apartment while she is gone.

Ana visits Elsie and Susan in Newport Beach, and she and Elsie begin repairing their fractured friendship.

Susan suggests renaming the library donation The Ross Family Young Adult Section to honor Ben's whole family.

Before Ben enters her life, Elsie is a solitary woman who spends New Year's Eve watching Ana pursue casual flings and returns home alone, waiting for something real. When Ben arrives, small moments reveal their compatibility — his willingness to crawl through a doggie door, their easy conversation, and the way he wins over Elsie's best friend Ana. After Ben's death, secondary characters and scenes carry much of the story's emotional weight: the funeral director who doubts the marriage, the voicemail Elsie keeps calling just to hear Ben's voice, and Susan's eulogy about a soap message she still hasn't erased. As Elsie struggles to grieve, her friendship with Ana fractures over Ana's new relationship, and the process of packing Ben's belongings becomes a shared act of mourning between Elsie and Susan. These quieter scenes trace the web of relationships that ultimately pull Elsie back toward life, culminating in Susan's generous act of expanding the library dedication to honor their entire shared family.

The supporting moments that shaped Elsie's journey.

Elsie wakes the morning after Ben's death and collapses on the kitchen floor when she sees the Georgie's Pizza magnet.

Elsie and Ana argue with hospital staff over next of kin, unable to prove the marriage without a certificate.

Susan reaches over and briefly squeezes Elsie's hand as mourners place dirt on Ben's casket.

Elsie says goodbye to Susan after the funeral reception and drives home feeling entirely alone for the first time.

Elsie notices her period is late and races to the pharmacy, feeling a sudden surge of desperate hope.

All of Elsie's pregnancy tests come back negative and she breaks down crying on the bathroom floor.

Susan returns Ben's ring and wallet to Elsie, revealing a handwritten draft of a marriage proposal tucked inside.

Ben moves into Elsie's apartment, marking the true beginning of their shared domestic life.

Ben proposes to Elsie on the way home from the hospital while still under the influence of painkillers.

George sends Elsie a letter about his wife Lorraine's hospitalization, regretting his earlier advice to simply move on from grief.

Ben pulls over during the drive to Las Vegas and questions whether they should marry without telling his mother first.

Elsie confesses to Susan that she pressured Ben into eloping before he had a chance to tell her about the relationship.

A county recorder calls Elsie to explain that the marriage certificate was delayed because Ben wrote the wrong Social Security number.

Elsie and Ben arrive in Nevada and Elsie feels that their life together is only just beginning.

Elsie takes George out for a beer after Lorraine's death, now able to offer someone else the comfort she once needed.

The novel's most pivotal moments are the decisions and discoveries that shift Elsie's understanding of herself, her marriage, and her grief. From the morning she collapses at a pizza magnet on the fridge to the false hope of a possible pregnancy, these scenes show how violently grief can disrupt a person's grip on reality. The revelation that Ben's marriage certificate was delayed by a clerical error mirrors a larger truth Elsie must accept — that her love was real even without proof, and that healing means choosing to live in the present. Key confessions reshape relationships: Elsie admitting to Susan that she pressured Ben to elope, and Susan giving Elsie the ring and wallet that contained a draft proposal she never knew existed. Interwoven with these present-day revelations, flashback turning points — Ben moving in, his painkiller-fueled proposal, the roadside argument on the way to Vegas — show how impulsively and completely the couple committed to each other. By the end, Elsie's ability to sit with George in his grief proves she has truly crossed from heartbreak into healing.