When reporter Casselyn Hill stepped into my small town bakery with her nose held high and a lost look in her eyes, the world fell away. I even knocked over sweet Mrs. Halpert to get to her. As one of the few residents who hasn’t picked a side in the town’s decades-old feud, I’ve been tasked with accompanying Cass to our annual Fireside Flannel Festival so she can get her story. As the day wears on, the tension grows thick, and it’s more than the war brewing between the town’s two rival families. She’s distracting. Charming. And here only for the story that will prove she deserves a full-time position at her dream job. As day turns to night, I can’t stop thinking about what’s underneath all those layers. I should have been concentrating on showing her around my coastal town, not thinking about the way her lips formed around my perfectly sweet Italian meringue. Cass doesn’t have time for distractions like me, but the more time we spend together, the more I know I won’t be satisfied with just one taste.

I’m a full time single dad. A former NFL player turned coach, tasked with turning around a college team full of kids who either don’t take it seriously or are determined to get injured. I will absolutely not be falling for my new neighbor, despite the number of times my meddling brothers try to set us up. Lark Butler is pure chaos wrapped in gorgeous, infuriating sunshine. She showed up out of nowhere––getting paid to cry at a funeral, no less. Who does that? But somewhere between offering her condolences and crawling out of a literal grave site, we’ve found ourselves tangled in the drama of Outtatowner, Michigan–my coastal hometown with a decades-old feud and two aunties determined to end it. I’m finally putting down roots so my daughter has a normal life and I need to forget about Lark. Forget the way it felt the night we kissed or what it’s like to finally take something just for me. But when those sparks ignited, it was more intense than either of us bargained for. Trouble is, I can’t trust her, and she never stays. She’s burning my carefully laid plans to the ground and all it took was one look.

Falling hard for my ex-boyfriend’s rugged older brother was never in the plan. Beckett Miller may be my brother’s best friend, but he’s also the last person on earth I want to ask for help. He’s stubborn, demanding, and doesn’t care at all what people think of him—everything his little brother wasn’t, and definitely everything I should not want. Thanks to my own stubbornness and my three infuriating siblings, he is the only one who can help me renovate my beloved aunt’s farmhouse. Beckett thinks I’m a doormat, and I know he’s an arrogant prick, but toss in one late-night game of tipsy strip poker, and before long, endless summer days turn into scorching nights. Every stolen touch—every kiss—is wrong in the best ways. I can fix everything around me: my friends’ problems, my brothers’ love lives, maybe even the decades-old rivalry that divides our cozy coastal town. So Beckett’s snarl and heavy sighs are no match for me. The only thing I can’t seem to fix is the way my body reacts when he swings a hammer. I built walls to protect my heart after what his brother did to me, but I’m finding it could all come crumbling down with just one touch.

Fake dating my best friend? Total disaster. With his cocky grin and devilish charm, firefighter Lee Sullivan makes every woman in our small town swoon. Every woman except for me. Which is why I’m shocked when he steps in at the town’s Matchmaker’s Gala and outbids my crush during the charity auction, committing us to six prearranged dates. Six dates where we, very publicly, pretend to be falling in love. Despite my objections and our efforts to set each other up with other people, Lee is convinced pretending to date each other is the perfect opportunity to get the women in town off his back (and out of his bed), while also helping to nudge my non\-committal crush in the jealousy department. Stupidly, I agree. After the disastrous blind dates he set me up on, what’s a few months of letting Lee worship the ground I walk on? He owes me. Trouble is––every fake kiss, every lingering touch, every filthy word he whispers when no one is around––is starting to feel very, very real. We know everything about each other––from my orphaned past to his irrational hatred of dolls. The only secret I have ever kept from Lee spans all the way back to his time in the Army and it’s the one thing that could ruin our friendship forever. Because where Lee is concerned, I have learned to guard my heart. Suddenly, he’s asking for the opportunity to feel something real. He’s asking for the one thing he wouldn’t want if he ever knew the truth: one chance.

Duke Sullivan is the oldest brother of my family’s hated rival. He also happens to be my good morning text and the man I have no right to have a secret crush on. Duke is strictly forbidden. After months of keeping our friendship hidden, the stars align, sparks ignite, and we finally give into temptation. Knowing our relationship could never be more than stolen glances and longing looks, we agree to stay secret friends––until two pink lines change everything. With our small town and both our families in an uproar, Duke does the unthinkable. He packs up my belongings and moves me into his house. Despite agreeing to weather the storm together and to try to figure out how to co\-parent, living with Duke proves nearly impossible. Every soft smirk, every brush of his calloused hand against my sensitive skin makes me want to burst into flames. It becomes clear, despite the feud, Duke is relentlessly going after what he wants and I think that might be . . . me. I’m the quiet daughter with the wrong last name, but it’s obvious he wants so much more than just one night.