I have two goals this season: 1. Be named captain of the Seattle Serpents. 2. Stay single. I'm right on track . . . until she happens. Auden Sinclair.

Yeah, bad ones. Everly Davis didn’t leave her tight-knit hometown on the best terms. It’s been ten years, but you don’t forget heartbreak like that. Then again, the anonymous invite to the annual Kiss Lottery in Rose, Tennessee, gives Everly content for her podcast. And she has a bone to pick with that old heartbreak anyway.

When grumpy, muscled-up artist Bennett Bishop bothers to speak, it’s usually to say something you’re not ready to hear. When he first speaks to Norah Ellis, a rambling runaway bride who hitchhikes a ride from him, it’s to tell her to get out of his truck and walk because she’s a pain in the a-s-s. By appearance, Norah Ellis is a fancy fashionista who’s spent the last several years living the good life in the city—expensive apartments, highbrow events, and a fiancé with wealth and good looks. The only problem is that she didn’t choose any of it for herself.

I fell in love with him when I was seven. I scraped my knee, and he helped carry me inside. Our love story was the talk of the town until a woman told everyone she was pregnant with his baby. The only rational solution was to high-tail it out of town and never come back. My best friend needed a place to hide, and you can’t get much more covert than my family farm, so I came back. For her. It was supposed to be temporary, and I wasn’t supposed to see him, but that’s what happens when you live in a small town where everyone knows each other.

All I want for Christmas this year is to be able to spend more time with my son and to finally move us out of our cramped apartment. I have the perfect plan to make my holiday dreams come true. All I have to do is convince my boss I'm the right person for the manager position that's available at the resort I work for. It finally seems like Santa is going to grant my wish, until one Jace Petersen, the owner of a national chain of sporting goods stores, walks into my life. More like literally falls on me. Worst first impression ever.