Meg

It’s been three years since Padraig lost his wife and since then, he’s been sleepwalking his way through each day, focusing only on work and family, while hanging out with his best friend, Emmy. The sum equivalent of Emmy’s experience with relationships is contained within the pages of the romance novels she writes while sitting at the end of the bar at Pat’s Pub. That is if she doesn’t count the secret crush she’s been harboring for Padraig since the first day she laid eyes on him.

Imagine this: an author with a raging case of writers block finds an unexpected source of inspiration in her grumpy, gorgeous new roommate. Sounds amazing, right? Except that new roommate is my childhood best friend. And Ian Wilder has been off-limits since I was five.

Everything about the woman standing next to me was complicated, from her designer clothes to her coffee order. I don't do complicated unless it comes with a good time. And then it's only for a night or two, max.

I was a small-town girl with big city dreams and more ambition than money to my name. He had everything—money, privilege, and the world at his feet. Opposites in every way, but that didn’t matter. We were lightning in a bottle, and everything felt possible when we were together. Life was perfect.

The headline could write itself: Matthew Hawkins, star defensive end, comes out of retirement to play for the Washington Wolves. Which is perfectly fine by Ava Baker - it makes her job as publicist for the team easier. There are only two problems. This particular football player was her first crush. The bigger problem: Matthew Hawkins was once engaged to her older sister.

Studying abroad for her master's program, all Lia Ward knows is that she's a little lonely and Jude McAllister’s very charming, even as they have an epically sexy argument about which type of football is superior. In Jude's mind, shagging the feisty American girl is exactly what he needs. He’s been fighting the clock of his long-standing football career and the younger players primed to take his position. Proving that he can feel like his old self again - something he's been trying to do with everyone in his life - should be easier after blowing off steam with Lia.