A Sweet Southern Romantic Comedy I’d do anything to take over my dad’s money management company. Even entertain deer hunters at a cabin in rural Alabama. Growing up in Atlanta I learned two valuable lessons: how to shop and how to do business. My mom taught me the first. My dad the second. And with his retirement growing closer by the minute, I’m determined to prove my worth as heir to Manderson Money Management. But Dad keeps testing me, and this time he’s taken it a bit too far. Sending me well off the beaten path to Apple Cart, Alabama. To meet with a couple of men at a hunting lodge and discuss expanding their outdoors store into the southeast. As if staying in the backwoods with no phone service weren’t enough to push me over the edge, there’s Jack, the owner of the lodge . . . Let’s just say I didn’t know hillbillies could be smoking hot. Now, I’m stuck trying to impress two middle-aged, gun-crazed store owners who I desperately want as business partners for our company. Plus, stay calm around one blue-eyed, camouflage-clad lodge owner who I desperately want to kiss. How will I ever manage to strike a deal with these men I relate to in no way possible? And, even worse, keep my emotions in check around Jack, who I relate to on a much deeper level?

I’m unemployed, recently divorced, and living with my parents. I have nowhere to go but up. A year ago I was married and living in a wealthy neighborhood in the biggest city in Alabama. That was before my husband left me and I tucked tail and ran home to Mama. Now I’m literally banking my five-year-old daughter’s future on my getting hired as a teller at the local credit union. I may not have a college education—at least not completely—but beauty pageants, sorority functions, and Junior League events have taught me how to interview like a pro. Too bad I’m stuck driving my daddy’s old Ford with no air-conditioning in the Alabama summer, which is hotter than a jalapeño's armpit. But that’s the least of my worries after I play chicken with a chicken truck and wreck Big Red. Between the truck driver’s colorful cussing and the sheriff’s flirtatious questioning, I’m ready to fly the coop any way I can. That’s when Tanner Nash, the biggest prankster in high school, comes out of nowhere and rescues me. He saves me and my interview, winning the role of my new bestie back in Apple Cart. We have more in common than I ever imagined—especially when it comes to wanting to ward off all the matchmakers in Apple Cart County. A little fake romance seems like the perfect solution to both get what we want. That is . . . until what I want is him!

I just agreed to a business proposition by my best friend that will determine the direction of my adult life. Jonah and I have had each other’s backs since kindergarten. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had, and we know each other better than we do our own siblings. That’s why I’m shocked to learn he doesn’t want to take over his family’s successful hardware store. He wants to flip a foreclosed mansion in Apple Cart to establish himself as a homebuilder and remodeler, mainly to prove to his parents why he doesn’t need the store. Oh, and he wants to bring me on board as the designer. In true Jonah fashion, he takes it a step further by making me “heart swear” (our thing since fourth grade) if we double our money, I’ll move back to Apple Cart and start my own interior design business. Until now, I’d planned on staying in Auburn and getting a design job. However, I’ve dreamed of helping make people’s personal dreams come true ever since I designed the lodge for Gamer’s Paradise. And, more than anything, I want to help Jonah succeed. We’re together all the time but never like this. Something about working side by side and sharing our dreams have me viewing him differently. It only complicates things further when I accidentally hit him in the head with a hammer, and he unconsciously kisses me. Of course, the best kiss of my life would come from my best friend while he has a concussion. Maybe it’s the kiss, or Jack and Bianca’s wedding. Or maybe it’s because I’m about to graduate college and start adulting full time. But my mind starts to drift toward thoughts of a future with Jonah. A future where he’s more than my best friend.

I’m just one goat away from never getting married. At least, that’s what all my friends say. I shouldn’t let it bother me, except I’m a little worried they’re right. Most Friday nights I stay in and make goat soap like Little House on the Prairie. I may not be the most eccentric person in my small town, but the few and far between single men under forty aren’t exactly beating down my door. My mundane life of milking goats and teaching them yoga tricks gets shaken up when the county sheriff recommends a friend to my massage practice. I mistook the AC repair man for my client (big mistake!), only to discover the real client was Kyle Tolbert . . . As in the handsome mechanic who’s made my heart swoon since middle school. The guy who was everything a girl could want—athletic and handsome, yet kind to everyone. I’m not sure he knew I existed. Of course, I was a wallflower with bright pink hair. But he’s suffering from an old football injury and claims I’m the only one who can help him heal. Never in a million years did I expect Kyle Tolbert would ask me to put my hands all over his bare skin—then pay me for it!