I shouldn't have been out in that storm. I knew it the second my feet hit the ground, and my flip-flops slid in the mud. Unfortunately, I had no idea what in the world I was doing. Not with my kids, or the three horses in my barn . . . and definitely not in the small country town we'd recently moved to. Being told all these facts, while being reluctantly rescued by my brand-new neighbor didn't help matters either.

Lila James is my best friend’s little sister, and I’ve always looked out for her. She's five years younger than me, and when she left for college, she was just a kid. But now she’s home for the summer—and she’s definitely not a kid anymore.

Davis was five years older than me . . . antisocial and temperamental. And there was the little fact that he didn't know I existed. Still, I gave him my heart, and he crushed it. So I picked up the pieces and ran away to New York City. I had a plan that would keep my heart intact for years. But one phone call changed everything. Returning home meant facing the past . . . and the man who ruined me. I had hoped that the mountain had swallowed him whole.

Our story was classic. A typical fairytale. Two young kids falling in love under an onyx sky. He was my dream...and I naively thought I was his. Until he bartered our love and sold me a lie. Now, I’m returning to the life I once knew as a married woman, wed to the richest man in Nashville.

It was supposed to be the best day of my life. But the second I got up, things started to fall apart. The kitchen just caught on fire. Flowers were from a funeral. My bride-to-be just had an allergic reaction, leaving by ambulance. Oh, and my ex-girlfriend just walked into the church. They say you have to see the signs when they are right in front of you. Maybe she was just mine to have.

Zanders: Chicago hockey isn't complete without me—everyone's favorite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night. What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.

Aurelia Whitlock is an ex-stepsister I forgot long ago. Until she shows up as a design intern at my fashion company. And that's the easy part. The part where she heats my blood, drawing me away from my grumpy, miserable side is another. She has no business being here. The more I learn about how she got this job, the more perilous things become for me and my company. I can't trust her. I can't fire her. And I can't claim her full lips with mine.

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.

When her sister doesn’t show up on her wedding day, Raven has no choice but to take her place — but marriage to Ares Windsor is nothing short of torture. The elusive billionaire media mogul is the man she’s always loved… yet he’s only ever had eyes for her sister.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

Declan Hardy, All-American heartthrob and retired NFL billionaire, is my complete opposite. He's commanding where I'm cooperative. Spontaneous while I am deliberate. Loud when I stay quiet. The only thing we have in common is that both our names are on my father's will.

Marrying Beckett Coleman is the best idea I've had in years. I can grant my sick dad’s wish to walk one of his daughters down the aisle, and Beckett has my help solving a custody situation with his daughter. Our plan is to spend a year together, then part ways. Easy, especially since I'm not his type, and he's not mine either. He’s too quiet and too serious. And while he’s distractingly gorgeous, he’s also my brother’s teammate. Beckett is fake husband material, not the real deal. I just have to remember that.

It was just another day in the Emergency Department - until she was wheeled in through the doors. Amanda Parks. My childhood best friend's mom, who I may or may not have secretly kissed before leaving for college. I haven't seen her in over a decade, and in so many ways, she hasn't changed. But something new? There isn't a ring on her finger anymore...And I'm much more of a man than I was at eighteen.

I should have known I was in trouble when I backed my old, beat-up truck into the shiny Range Rover. The driver looked like a gorgeous fallen angel–one who’d been booted right out of paradise for being a giant prick. Good thing I’ll never have to see him again.

Football star. Single dad. And once, a long time ago, mine. I’ve spent the better part of a decade forgetting Ford Ellis. If he had just stayed away from Montana, I might have erased the memory of his striking blue eyes and rugged smile forever. Avoiding him was easy when the only place I saw his face was on ESPN—and a remote control could fix that problem.

I've been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got worse as time wore on. I even went to Europe for a year, just to avoid him. But I'm done hiding from him now, and there's no way I'll allow him to ruin another year. He might not have changed, but I have. It's time to fight back.

She's addicted to sex. He's addicted to booze... the only way out is rock bottom. No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway's biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups, and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own. Loren Hale's best friend is his bottle of bourbon. Lily comes at a close second.

I think for sure it must've been a dream because there's no way a guy could look like that, touch me like that, and be so in tune with me on every known level and disappear, leaving me with nothing but a good story to tell my friends. When he walks into my bar three months later, everything I thought I knew and what we'd had disappears in the blink of an eye and the blinding light of the three-carat diamond on his fiancee's hand.

Devin and Ayden were my best friends. We were practically joined at the hip since age two. When we were kids, we thought we were invincible, inseparable, that nothing or no one could come between us. But we were wrong. Everything turned to crap our senior year of high school. Devin was turning into a clone of his deadbeat lowlife father - fighting, getting wasted, and screwing his way through every girl in town. I'd been hiding a secret crush on him for years.

Ryan Christensen just wanted to be an actor. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine a life where fans would chase him, paparazzi would stalk him, and Hollywood studios would want to own him. While filming in Seaport, Rhode Island, Ryan ducks into a neighborhood bar for a quick escape from legions of screaming fans... and finds much more than he expected. Nursing a recent heartbreak, Taryn Mitchell believes men are best kept at a safe distance. But when Ryan Christensen unexpectedly bursts through the front door of her pub, she can’t help but be drawn in

Drafted by the NHL at 18, Jordan Garrison was headed for fame, and there was only one person he wanted to share it with - Jessie Caplan. He was crazy in love with her and had finally told her so. They shared an amazing night...and then everything fell apart. Jessie tries not to think about the night she gave herself to Jordan - or how he broke her heart. She tries not to think about it, but she does. Especially now, when she's staring into his sky-blue eyes for the first time in six years.

Kaylee Rose Burton, kindergarten teacher, has never been a believer in fantasies. Living in L.A. her entire life, she knows the glitz and glam of Hollywood is just an illusion. That is until she stumbles head first into the arms of Hollywood's most eligible bachelor. It was just another day for Paxton Myles on the red carpet until the blue-eyed beauty literally stumbles at his feet. A single glimpse in her innocent eyes and he knows he has to have her. After one night of unbridled passion, Kaylee slips away to live her quiet life, but the paparazzi has other ideas.

Before senior year, I was forced to move away, leaving behind the only man I have ever loved. He promised he'd love me forever. He vowed nothing would tear us apart. He swore he'd wait for me, but Jack lied. Six years later, when our paths cross again, his broad shoulders, rock-hard chest, and rippling muscles almost make me forget his betrayal. His rugged voice, tempting lips, and sinful smile make it harder for me to deny the feelings I still have for him. He wants to make me his again, but our past may be too much for us to overcome.

Donya Stewart's chest filled with the soft beating wings of butterflies when she first met Emmet Grayne's green eyes at the ripe age of five. Unable to identify the tugging pressure within her when in his presence, Donya moved through the first several years of her life addled by her feelings for the boy who was her best friend's brother and very much like her own sibling. But one cool autumn night in her mystifying teenage years, Emmet erases any ideas Donya has of him being anything like a sibling.

Four years ago, race car driver Tracey Bradshaw almost died in a horrific crash. Now scarred inside and out, she's making a comeback, but her team is plagued by a series of "accidents."

Charlotte and Nathan were supposed to be forever. They grew up together. Their families were intertwined. Charlotte was Nathan's first love. Nathan was Charlotte's first everything. Until they weren't. How do you hold on to the person you know in your heart you are supposed to be with when everything and everyone in the universe is telling you it's over? How many times does a heart break? When is enough enough? How long is forever?

What do ice cream and Sadie Montgomery have in common? They're both ice cold, but one taste is never enough. I wanted to be friends - I would have even settled for her seeing me as anything but a nerd - but there was no getting through. So just like any hard-headed, red-blooded man out there, I made up my mind. I'd make my coworker fall for me.

Love and the right timing were two things I didn't believe in. Love is about walking to the edge of the cliff and taking the leap together. Timing was never on our side. My first mistake was hooking up with my best friend. My second came years later, when we met again, and I fell for her. My third was letting her go, because I had to. Because a love like this wasn't built to withstand the winds coming in our direction. Love and timing. I didn't believe in either. Then there was you....

Corbin: I loved my grandma, but I don't need her money. All I care about is keeping the house - the only place that's ever felt like home. That, and screwing over my dad, who wants to turn the property into a mall. There's only one catch: to receive my inheritance, I have to get married within six months. Me, the guy who's never dated a girl for more than six minutes. Now I need to find a woman I can trust. So when I'm rear-ended by a Prius, I figure it's a sign that I'm supposed to meet gorgeous, down-to-earth Teagan Monroe.

Regret, she's a snarky little bitch. I've tried several times to regret the events that took place on June 5, 2008, but for the life of me, I can't. I'd never regret the pain, the suffering, or the heartache because they ultimately led me to the place I am in now. And I can't regret the place I am in now. What I still can't figure out is this: How is it possible that the single worst day of my life inadvertently became the very best day? Five years ago my life was irrevocably changed. Seventeen minutes was all it took to lose my best friend, to lose the love of my life.

I shouldn't have been out in that storm. I knew it the second my feet hit the ground, and my flip-flops slid in the mud. Unfortunately, I had no idea what in the world I was doing. Not with my kids, or the three horses in my barn . . . and definitely not in the small country town we'd recently moved to. Being told all these facts, while being reluctantly rescued by my brand-new neighbor didn't help matters either.

Our story was classic. A typical fairytale. Two young kids falling in love under an onyx sky. He was my dream...and I naively thought I was his. Until he bartered our love and sold me a lie. Now, I’m returning to the life I once knew as a married woman, wed to the richest man in Nashville.

Greyson Knox. Local animal doctor, famously rich, unfathomably gorgeous, and my worst nightmare. I can put up a good fight, always have, but against Greyson; I’ve always been flustered, irritated...weak. Especially after what happened. Four years I've managed to avoid him. I’ve stayed on my side of town with my head down, and now he’s here...and I can’t escape him. Some men are cordial, kind, professional...but Greyson Knox is nothing but a vicious vet looking to score.

Davis was five years older than me . . . antisocial and temperamental. And there was the little fact that he didn't know I existed. Still, I gave him my heart, and he crushed it. So I picked up the pieces and ran away to New York City. I had a plan that would keep my heart intact for years. But one phone call changed everything. Returning home meant facing the past . . . and the man who ruined me. I had hoped that the mountain had swallowed him whole.

Rumors swirled around the Rake Forge University campus about a scandalous game played by none other than the Devil's baseball team. Honestly, I didn't care. Not my business, but when my editor takes away my chance to be featured in the senior showcase, and my little sister gets a mysterious playing card, a devious idea emerged. I decided I'd sneak into the party, and scoop the story. I would not get caught, definitely not seduced, and absolutely wouldn't die.

His name starts with a H. So does happiness. Heartbreak. Home. Hoops. All things I associate with him. Ever since my family moved in across the street when we were both kids, Holden Adams has been that guy. My first crush. My former confidante. My best friend's brother. He's the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I love him. I hate him. One of those is a lie. I'm just . . . not sure which.

Life hasn’t been kind to Harper Rain. In fact, so far, it’s only proven the one person she can rely on is herself. But when all her efforts to escape her family fail, she takes the last desperate option—run. With little more than a few dollars to her name, she ends up in the small town of Misty Peak. The first person she meets is a tall mountain of a man…whose kindness is only outshone by his captivating smile.

The first time I met the grumpy lumberjack next door, I almost burnt down his cabin. The second time, I was throwing tampons at a moose (don't ask). The third time, I was naked. Henri Gagnon is not just my neighbor and landlord but a pain in my optimistic, plus-sized ass. He's got a protective streak under his grumpy exterior, and he's convinced I won't make it through the Maine winter.

Emmett Lasker is impossible to work for. He might be model handsome and stupidly wealthy, but he also has it out for me. He’s given me more last-minute and weekend requests than anyone else, ruining any plans I make. I should quit. And I will. Just as soon as I hit my two-year anniversary and earn out my signing bonus. But after a particularly awful day at work, a breakup (via text!), and my computer crashing, I’ve had enough! So at 11:59 Friday night, I barge into Emmett’s office to tell him what I really think of him. Only, that’s not what happens. AT ALL.

Lennox Kennedy is beautiful, loud, and the love of my life. She's also my ex-girlfriend. The first time I saw her after ten years apart, I slammed into the plexiglass minutes before our game was set to begin. The second time I threw up. The third time's a charm apparently because as my fiancée and I walked into an appointment to meet the woman hired to plan our nuptials—there she was again. Obviously, I did what any smart man would do—I called off the wedding. I don't have a plan per se, other than winning back the only girl I've ever loved.