I have a crush… Well, two, really. One is a guy I met online, who I’ll never work up the guts to meet in real life. And the other? That’s a long story… My life feels like it’s falling apart at the seams—I’m broke, my restaurant is on the verge of failure, and my brother’s best friend just moved back to town. Okay, so maybe Brooks Callahan’s return isn’t a life-ending event, but it sure feels like it. Eight years ago, he told me he wanted me. He was just a kid, and honestly, so was I. When I tried to let him down gently, he lashed out, his awful words scarring me in ways they never should have. Now Brooks is the only one who can help me, and I have to find a way to put our issues to bed. Metaphorically, not literally. That would be ridiculous, right? Of course, it would. Maybe I’ll ask the guy I’ve crushed on for months…my online friend whose posts always seem to reverberate in my soul. Whose messages make me laugh. Think. Feel. The one who has his own crush…on someone else. What am I going to do?

Have you ever had a truth bomb dropped on you—one so big, it blew up your life…in the best possible way? Yeah. Me, too. Everything in my life has gone exactly as I’d planned it. I graduated college, moved back to my hometown, and opened my own business. The Sly Fox is a thriving hotspot in the small town of Rebel, Idaho. I’m close to my family, my best friend just moved back to town, and I’ve never been happier. I am literally living the dream. It can’t possibly get any better than this. At least, that’s what I thought until a certain midnight-haired beauty walked into my bar and asked for a job. Mila Cabrera is even more gorgeous now than she was in high school, where I’d spent all four years secretly crushing on her. Now, she’s back in my life, and I’m having a hard time keeping things strictly professional. I want her, but she gets strangely nervous around me. Quiet. Guarded. And the more I break through her tough outer shell to get to know her, the more I want to know. I like her. A lot. But turns out, she has a secret. And when the truth is revealed, nothing will ever be the same.

I’ve never been into older men. And I definitely haven’t had any experience with older men—or any men, really—who are as intense as Jack O’Sullivan. What am I even doing? When I accepted the gig to take marketing photos for O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was convinced it was a quick, in-and-out job, something to broaden my portfolio and open my business up to new ventures. What I didn’t expect was to feel a sudden and intense attraction to the bar’s owner, a man twelve years my senior with infinite more life experience and a need to maintain control in every situation. And I never once considered he might feel that same attraction to me—a curvy, inexperienced twenty-something with no flirting skills and a shaky self-image. But he does want me. That much is obvious, even to someone as clueless as me. I just don’t know what to do with it. Should I dive headfirst into uncharted waters? Or run as fast as I can in the opposite direction? Whatever I decide, I know my life will be utterly unrecognizable after Jack.