SueG

Nathan Davenport, CEO of the Davenport empire, is my complete opposite. He hates chocolate. I'm a size sixteen dessert chef. He only wears black. I love glitter and pink. He's grumpy, while I look on the brighter side of life. Too bad his piercing eyes, and high cheekbones, haunt my dreams. When he offers to loan me the money to save my bakery, I have no choice but to agree.

Trust doesn’t come easily when you’ve been running for as long as I have, which is why moving in with a man I barely know is such a bad idea. Shepard Colson is all golden-boy charm and devastating good looks. But I know what it’s like to be taken in by easy smiles and the promise of forever—I have the scars to prove it.

Jackson Decker is everything I’ve ever wanted: Fierce. Loyal. Not to mention tall, tattooed and hotter than the earth’s core. Too bad there are so many reasons why he’s off limits. He’s old enough to be my father, but even worse than that, he is the right-hand man of head of the Spanish Mafia, who just happens to be my dad. So that loyalty I admire in him so much is also the reason he will never look at me the way I want him to. But when we start working together, sparks fly in ways that neither of us expected.

When I first met him, I got butterflies in my stomach. I thought it was silly and pushed it aside. Avoided him. Besides, I was taken—unavailable. Or so I thought. That was before he hired me to take over his company’s PR. Now that we were working with each other, that meant he was completely off-limits. Until one night in Vegas.

After a risky affair cost me my self-respect, my credibility, and almost my job, I jump at the guidance counselor position that opens up in Uncle Keith’s small town. He’s the only father I’ve ever really known and the one I can turn to—even when I can’t tell him why.

Anaya Baker knows pain - she got her first taste when she was orphaned and put into foster care. Then it was forever embedded into her soul when she was sold to a sex-trafficking ring. Since being rescued, Anaya has dedicated her life to helping others, yet no amount of good she’s done has lessened her anguish. While on an assignment with the Peace Corps, she learns of a brothel posing as an orphanage and cannot turn her back. Not even the civil unrest or the death of her friend will stop her. Anaya has one mission: save the young girls from the horrors she herself had suffered.

They call him Dr. Perfect. I call him Dr. Aloof, Dr. Arrogant, Dr. If-you're-going-to-fire-me-just-get-it-over-with. If I had other options, I'd quit, but I need this job. Badly. So I jump at the chance to impress him by hand-delivering some important documents.

Ellodie Cassandra Solaire made a single, solitary New Year’s resolution. That resolution was set in stone, and she wouldn’t be breaking it, no matter what. It was simple: Say yes to every person who asks her out on a date until she finds a boyfriend. Easy, right? Wrong. She breaks that New Year’s resolution three months into the year after a guy gives her serial killer vibes. Fast forward three months, and she’s unhappily saying yes to any man who asks.

Tag Calloway is toxic. If you aren’t in his small inner circle of friends, you’re nothing. An inconvenience at best. And it’s just my luck that my first blind date—heck, my first date since "The Incident"—happens to be with him. I’ve spent years hiding myself from men. From life. Wallowing in guilt and camouflaging my body. I live for one reason. Gigi. The broken-condom accident who has become the singular light of my life. Why did I let my friends talk me into this? He’s the last person I should trust with my feelings. My body. My scars.

I’m a widow. A single mom. And the new girl in a small town. I’m also in the midst of the most important battle of my life—fighting my in-laws for custody of my son. The circumstances that brought me to Calloway Creek come with perks. A new employer, a company house, and a gorgeous neighbor who is the perfect distraction from my heartache. The problem with this distraction? The whole town has warned me away from Hudson McQuaid. But I don't see the side of him everyone else sees.