After years in Boston and a year of working for herself as a contract consultant and adjunct professor, unemployed Dr. Anne Conner is ready to return home to work in her field as a marine biochemist and research scientist. With money running low, Anne jumps at the chance to interview for her dream job as a research scientist with the world famous Stanford Enterprises research company.

When she makes the final round of interviews, Anne decides to combine her time in Seattle interviewing with a vacation trip to her family's inn on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. The last thing she expected was to run into her childhood friend and object of her teenage dreams, Ben Carlson, who is on the island for his sister's wedding. Nor did she plan on the passion that erupts between them. Is their relationship only a vacation romance as they agreed from the beginning or will it turn into something more when Anne moves back to Seattle?

Just as Anne begins to hope for more, the unthinkable is revealed. Ben is none other than her new boss. Worse yet, he thinks that she only used him to get the job.