Judy Corry's Blog

I’m so excited to share the blurb for The Ruse with you today! I’ve had several people messaging me, begging to know who Elyse’s love interest is going to be since the epilogue in The Facade introduced a couple options.

Hopefully this helps clear things up a little…  

I seriously can’t wait to get this book in your hands!

Ruse: an action intended to deceive someone; a trick

When I found out I was cast opposite my crush in the school musical, I thought it was a dream come true.

Nash Hastings is the type of guy a “good girl” like me should want. He’s sweet, attentive, loyal and best of all, he finally asked me on a date.

It’s the perfect setup for an onstage romance to move offstage.

There’s just one problem: Asher Park—the bad-boy rumored to have been involved in the mysterious disappearance of his ex last spring—is also in the play.

I know I shouldn’t get involved with Asher. That he’s dangerous and the exact type of guy I always get burned by.

But the more I get to know him, the less I want to believe the rumors.

Nash and Asher are sworn rivals and before I know it, I’m caught in the middle.

In most fairytales, the princess ends up with the prince.

But this might not be that kind of fairytale. 

Preorder link: https://amzn.to/3Bg7SmL

Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59460402-the-ruse

So…I am about two months late in updating my website. But since it’s better late than never I figured I’d finally announce here that Friend Zone to End Zone is available on Amazon.

Just click here to grab your copy!

Dating Coach Rule Number 1: Don’t fall for your client, especially if he’s your best friend.

Cole
I don’t suck at dating.
I suck at getting over the girl who friend-zoned me back in college.
But I have a plan: Let her set me up. Bomb the dates. 
Then she can be my dating coach and I can finally show her I’m the one for her and not that jerk boyfriend she’s always crying on my shoulder about.

Arianna
I’ve had the same boyfriend for three years, which practically makes me a relationship expert.
So when my famous best friend asks for my help, I know turning him into boyfriend material will be a piece of cake.
I’ll tell him to get a haircut, maybe open a few doors here and there and the guy will be golden. 
I mean, with all those muscles and jaw-dropping good looks, it really should be no problem.
There’s just one thing I didn’t expect: to want him for myself.

Read it today!

I’m so excited to announce that my latest novella is available today!

It was so fun to work on this project and I love the story that I was able to write for two characters that we first saw in Protect My Heart and Her Football Star Ex.

Stolen Kisses from a Rock Star is about a small-town florist named Maya who is torn between two guys. Her next-door neighbor Landon Holloway is one of them. They’ve been friends since they were kids but when she makes-out with him the night she calls off her wedding, things get complicated.

The other guy in the picture is her favorite rock star, Incognito. He’s the masked singer who no one knows the true identity of. She gets backstage tickets to his concert and before she leaves this once in a lifetime one-on-one meeting with him, she ends up kissing him.

Both guys are perfect for her, but she can only choose one. Who will it be?

Read it here!

I’m so excited to announce that my latest novella is available today!

I banded together with 20 other sweet romance authors to publish a box set full of 21 brand new, never before published novellas. It was so fun to work on this project and I love the story that I was able to write for two characters that we first saw in Protect My Heart and Her Football Star Ex.

Stolen Kisses from a Rock Star is about a small-town florist named Maya who is torn between two guys. Her next-door neighbor Landon Holloway is one of them. They’ve been friends since they were kids but when she makes-out with him the night she calls off her wedding, things get complicated.

The other guy in the picture is her favorite rock star, Incognito. He’s the masked singer who no one knows the true identity of. She gets backstage tickets to his concert and before she leaves this once in a lifetime one-on-one meeting with him, she ends up kissing him.

Both guys are perfect for her, but she can only choose one. Who will it be?

That is just one of the stories in this amazing box set!

It is currently only 99 cents, but this deal only lasts through Sunday night so make sure you grab your copy now! You can find it HERE.

Twenty-one swoon-worthy heroes. Twenty-one chances to fall in love. Twenty-one happily ever afters.

Billionaires. Cowboys. Rock stars. Mountain men … and more.

They’re all about to find love, whether they were looking for it or not…

…their last first kiss that will change their lives and flip their neat and orderly worlds upside down.

Enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, second chance — you’ll find all of your favorite tropes along with scorching leading men and heroines you’ll be cheering for.

Don’t miss this limited-edition box set of fresh, new stories from bestselling and award-winning sweet romance authors.

Click to download your copy before this incredible set is gone!

Featuring the following books:
Tamie Dearen – The Billionaire’s Practice Kiss
Judith Lucci – Kissing the Cow King
Evangeline Kelly – Kissing an Alaskan Man
Lorana Hoopes – Sealed with a Kiss
Jo Noelle – Eight Second Kiss
Jean C. Gordon – Trusting His Kiss
Jessie Gussman – Dreaming of His Kiss
Donna K. Weaver – Don’t Kiss the Enemy
Melanie D. Snitker – Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye
Monique McDonell – Kissing the Captain
Michelle Pennington – First Kiss Train Wreck
Kit Morgan – To Kiss a Sheriff
Emma St. Clair – If You Want to Kiss a Billionaire
Jeanette Lewis – Kissing the Mountain Man
Anne-Marie Meyer – A Magnolia Kiss
Judy Corry – Stolen Kisses from a Rock Star
Bree Livingston – A Geek Girl’s Guide to Kissing a Video Gamer
Juliette Duncan – Never Kiss a Preacher’s Son
Vivi Holt – Meet-Cute Kiss
Brooke St. James – Kiss & Tell
Joy Ohagwu – Raspberry Kisses

So, apparently I’m not the best at keeping my website updated. But I just wanted to let you know that my latest book Her Football Star Ex has finally been released and is ready for you to read!

I’ve written several books now, and while all of them are pieces of my heart put in print, Emerson and Vincent’s story was definitely one of my babies. I’ve had their story in my head for several years, so finally having it in book form is amazing, and sharing it with you wonderful readers is even better.
I hope you love it!

She swore off the man who broke her heart. He’s determined to win her back.

When Emerson hears a rumor that her ex-husband, NFL quarterback Vincent Lake, is bringing a plus-one to a wedding they’re both set to attend, she signs up for online dating and hopes to find a guy impressive enough to make her famous ex jealous for the night.

Vincent should be on top of the world when he leads his team to the playoffs, but when his best friend accidentally matches with Emerson, it’s like a dagger to his heart. He knows she deserves happiness after his betrayal broke their family apart, but watching her move on is proving harder than winning the Super Bowl. 

But when they’re thrown together before the wedding, and sparks reignite, Emerson begins to believe Vincent truly regrets his mistake. And even though forgiveness seems impossible, Vincent dares to hope the best love stories can come after the biggest heartbreaks.

Download your copy here!

I have been working hard on the third book in my Rich and Famous series for the past several months and am hoping to have it finished by the end of March. So to celebrate (and also light a little fire under myself) I wanted to share the first two chapters of Vincent and Emerson’s story with you.

I hope you like it!

CHAPTER ONE

EMERSON

“Congrats on winning the case,” my paralegal, Kira Zigler, said after the judge had sentenced the defendant to six months of prison. “I knew you were worried about having enough evidence to convict him, but you pulled through once again.”

I smoothed my hands along my pencil skirt and stood. “I couldn’t have done it without you finding that last-minute witness, so thank you.”

Kira really was a lifesaver. And without her help, I probably would have lost my first case of the new year.

And I couldn’t have that. I needed this year to be better than last year.

“Do you have any plans to celebrate your win tonight?” Kira put her bag over her shoulder, pulling her long brown hair out of the way of the strap.

I shrugged and put my tablet into my bag. “I’ll probably end up taking a bubble bath or something,” I said. “Vincent won’t be dropping Jaxon back home until after dinner, so I should have just enough time to get one in before I have to get Jaxon to bed.”

I’d missed my son for the past couple of days that he’d been with Vincent, so having him back with me again would be a reward in and of itself.

“A bath sounds nice,” Kira said, and I was thankful she said that instead of looking at me like my life was so dull and boring these days.

My life hadn’t always been this way though. Before the divorce, when I first started practicing law and was winning my first cases, Vincent always made such a big deal out of it. Every ruling in my client’s favor was worthy of celebration and he insisted on taking Jaxon and me out to the fanciest restaurants in Denver where we’d wine and dine until we were so full we could barely walk out of the restaurant.

But that was before he’d cheated on me with his physical therapist.

Life was a lot different now.

“Are you and Mike doing anything to celebrate the Dragon’s winning the wild card game?” I put my bag on my shoulder and lead the way out of the courtroom. “He’s got to be excited about that.”

Mike was one of the defensive ends for the Denver Dragon’s, the NFL team my ex-husband, Vincent Lake, was the star quarterback for. And in the six years that I’d followed the team closely—ever since I first met Vincent and fell in love with the sport at the same time I was falling in love with him—the team hadn’t made it into the playoffs.

“He’s on top of the world right now,” Kira smiled, her brown eyes sparkling with pride for her fiancé. “The whole team is.”

“I bet. It’s pretty exciting.”

“Did you watch the game with Jaxon then?” she glanced sideways at me as she pushed open the door that led to the big hall of the courthouse.

I tucked some of my blonde hair behind my ear. “He went with Vincent’s parents to the game since it was Vincent’s weekend to have him. So, no, I didn’t watch the game.”

“Knowing you, you were probably working all weekend anyway.” She gave me a knowing look.

I shrugged. “You don’t win cases without preparation.”

“Well, you missed a good game.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

We passed by the lawyer we’d just gone up against, standing in the hall with his legal team. We’d already shaken hands in the courtroom earlier, so I simply smiled at them as we passed and continued toward the exit doors.

“So you never said what you were doing to celebrate Mike’s win,” I said to Kira as we walked down the steps. I pulled my wool coat close as the January air sent a chill through my body. 

“My mom is cooking a special dinner for Mike and me tonight. So we’ll be heading over there once he’s back from his workout.”

“Does that mean you’ll also be doing more wedding planning?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Of course.” She smiled. “You know my mom will make any excuse to get us to her house to do wedding stuff. I think we’re finalizing the seating arrangements tonight.”

“I bet Mike’s excited about that.” I laughed, trying to imagine the big, tough guy who hit other big guys for a living caring about those particular details.

“He’s a pretty good sport. He says he’s just happy the planning is almost over and we’ll be getting married in a few weeks.”

They had purposely planned their wedding for two weeks after the Super Bowl was scheduled. That way, if the Dragon’s actually made it that far this year, the wedding wouldn’t interfere with it.

And if the season ended sooner than they wanted, he’d still have something to look forward to in February and they could spend the off-season honeymooning.

We made it to the parking structure where I’d parked my car. Kira and I had driven to the courthouse together since her car was in the shop. I opened the back door and set my bag on the seat next to Jaxon’s dinosaur booster seat before climbing in and starting it.

“Speaking of the table arrangements,” Kira turned to me after we’d buckled our seat belts. “My mom was hoping to have the final count tonight and you’re the only one who hasn’t sent the save the date card back.”

I was the only one?

Man, their friends and family were on the ball. I could have sworn it wasn’t due back to them for another week at least.

I put my car in reverse, “Are you talking about the card where I’m supposed to declare whether I’m coming alone or with a date?” My lack of enthusiasm at announcing my single status to all of her friends and family showed in my voice.

“That would be it,” she said, timidly.

Could I pretend I wasn’t familiar with the proper etiquette for save the dates? Vincent and I had eloped to Vegas, after all, so we’d never had the chance to do any of the wedding planning stuff.

But since I knew better, I decided to just go with the truth. “I’m still trying to decide whether to beg a random guy to pretend to be my date or not.”

“I hope you’re not serious,” Kira said, her voice raising with shock.

I gave a non-committal shrug.

“I really doubt you’d have to beg anyone to be your date,” Kira said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure Cade has a major crush on you and would do anything you ask him to.”

I laughed at that, remembering how I’d gotten the twenty-two-year-old law student at the front desk to pretend to be my best friend’s date last month when she was trying to make her now-boyfriend see what a hot commodity she was. “If I wasn’t four years older than him, I might actually consider it.”

Cade was pretty cute—almost as tall as Vincent, even. Though he definitely had the physique of a guy who worked at a desk instead of the muscular giant I’d been married to. 

But the four-year gap wasn’t that bad—especially since Vincent had been five years older than me when we started dating my sophomore year of college.

But that was just the thing. 

I wasn’t a cougar.  

If I was going to bring a date to the wedding that my ex-husband was set to be the best man at, I needed to at least bribe someone believable.

Which reminded me.

“Do you know if Vincent is bringing a date?” I studied the traffic ahead, hoping not to seem too interested in her answer.

“I, um, I can’t really remember off the top of my head.” There was an awkwardness in Kira’s tone that told me she didn’t really want to try to remember that particular fact either.

I glanced sideways at her. “If he’s dating someone, you can just tell me.”

It’s not like I could really expect to find my next soul mate before my star quarterback ex-husband found his. 

He may have decided to stay in our small town of Sutton Creek to be closer to Jaxon instead of moving twenty minutes away into Denver, but that didn’t mean I expected him to stay home alone on the nights he didn’t have our son.

I mean, he hadn’t exactly kept his hands to himself when we were together.

I sighed and pushed those thoughts away. I would never get past my anger if I kept reminding myself of the pain over and over again.

Kira cleared her throat. “I don’t think he’s dating anyone seriously, but yes, Mike might have said something about Vincent bringing a date.”

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

I made myself take a calming breath before I asked my next question. “Do you know who he’s bringing? The new physical therapist they hired after Victoria quit, perhaps?”

Kira shook her head, a hint of compassion in her eyes at my mention of Victoria. “The newest physical therapist is a fifty-year-old male, so I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.”

“Well, I guess that’s good. Having such a distraction had probably kept the players from recovering as quickly as they should have in the past.” 

Having a female help with the rehabilitation after his Achilles tendon injury had proven too much of a temptation for Vincent to resist at least.

Which was why I was in this predicament of needing to find a date in the first place.

If he’d just come home after practice like he was supposed to that October night over a year ago, we’d probably still be married. And I’d have a date to weddings lined up for the rest of my life.

“Maybe he’s bringing one of the cheerleaders?” I asked, still trying to figure out who he might be seeing now. “Or maybe one of the super fans who always seem to find out which hotel the guys are staying at before their in-town games?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I honestly don’t know who he’s asked?” Kira looked like she regretted bringing up the topic of plus one’s in the first place.

And I felt guilty for making this about me when the wedding was a celebration for her and Mike.

It must be hard being close friends with a couple who got divorced. Vincent and I had been the ones to set her and Mike up in the first place. 

It had been the perfect match since the guys both played for the same team and Kira and I worked together. We’d always had the same weekends off to go on trips together. They adored Jaxon and once they got married we had planned to ask them to be his Godparents.

Things had been great.

Until they weren’t.

And now, since I was one of her bridesmaids and Vincent was the best man, I would be forced to look at Vincent across the aisle as Kira and Mike said their “I do’s”.

It made me sick just thinking about being at the wedding with him, but not “with” him.

And, of course, all the other Dragons teammates and their wives would be there to watch it and judge me.

Since we’d never gone public with the reasons behind our divorce, all sorts of rumors had spread through the gossip mill that was the Dragon Ladies. I could only guess what they had said about me when they heard that I’d filed for divorce from the living legend that was Vincent Lake. The tabloids had certainly given the public lots of ideas for the public to speculate over.

“What are you thinking about?” Kira seemed to study my face when I pulled to a stoplight a block from our office building.

“I’m just imagining seeing the other Dragon Ladies again.” 

“I bet everyone will be happy to see you,” Kira said in her delusional, happy tone.

I snorted. “Yeah right.” They were never happy to see me, even before I stopped trying to be their friend.

I had always been a bit of an outcast from the Dragon’s wives—being one of the few who chose to have a career of her own instead of staying home and raising babies. 

Could I bear sitting at the singles table with everyone watching and whispering about me? 

Because there was no doubt in my mind that the ringleader of the group, Chelsea Stockton, would have all sorts of things to say about me and the downgrading of my social status since the divorce.

“How upset would you be if I suddenly got the flu on your wedding day?” I looked at Kira with innocent eyes.

“Don’t even think about it.” She shook her head. “You’re a bridesmaid. You will be at my wedding.”

“Then I guess I better find a boyfriend quick because there’s no way that I’m showing up alone with all those people just waiting for me to fail.”

I needed someone tall, with broad shoulders. 

I started making a list of my preferences in my head.

Brown hair would be ideal since I had a major weakness for guys with darker features. A strong jaw was also a must. Eye color didn’t really matter, as long as his eyes were vibrant with life…

I continued piecing together the physical attributes of my ideal man in my head as we drove down Main Street, scanning up his imaginary torso in my mind’s eye. A torso held a guy’s heart and securing that had turned out to be one of the trickiest parts for me.

He definitely needed to have big, strong arms to hold me tight as we danced at Kira’s wedding. And a little scruff on his jawline wouldn’t hurt either. I was a sucker for guys like that.

My mind’s eye pieced together my dream man’s face and when the eyes came into focus, I gasped, because my mind had betrayed me.

I’d thought I’d been piecing together a dream guy who I’d never met, but when the eyes formed, I realized I hadn’t been conjuring up someone new at all. Instead, I’d just re-imagined my ex-husband.

Ugh.

And the exercise had been going so well.

“Maybe I need to give online dating a shot,” I mumbled as I switched on my blinker to turn into the parking lot of our office building.

Our tiny town had a grand total of three single guys close to my age. And since one of them was my ex-husband, and the other two were even less charming than him, my best bet was to find someone online.

“Did you say something?” Kira looked up from her phone like she hadn’t quite caught what I’d said.

I pulled into the parking lot and looked to Kira, trepidation filling my chest. “Do you think I’d look completely desperate if I tried online dating?” 

“Not at all.” Kira gave me an understanding smile. “Everyone is online these days. And it’s way better than the alternative of spending hours in a bar or coffee shop just hoping a guy will hit on you.”

“Plus, it’s probably better guys know upfront that they’re getting two for the price of one,” I said, hoping to sound more confident about it than I really did. I could put that I’m a single mom right on my profile instead of trying to figure out a way to naturally bring it up in conversation.

Because, while I saw Jaxon as a major blessing and I was so thankful that I at least had him in my life, I knew a lot of single guys in their twenties would see it as a drawback. And it would be good to just narrow things down right away.

I was quiet for a moment, just watching the snow softly fall on the windshield as I thought about actually putting myself out there again.

Sure, I could stand in front of a court all day every day and barely break a sweat. But put myself out there for guys to weigh the pros and cons of dating me?

The thought gave me hives.

Kira must have sensed my growing anxiety because she touched my arm. “You’ve only been divorced for a year. You don’t need to rush into anything if you’re not ready.”

I sighed. “But your wedding is coming up whether I’m ready or not.”

I needed a date. I couldn’t show up alone.

“I could always set you up with my cousin Marty,” she suggested. “He’s still single. He’s even asked about you a few times.”

Marty pickle breath Johnson had been asking about me?

I scrunched up my nose as the image of her cousin came into my mind. He wasn’t exactly ugly, but his resemblance to Mr. Collins in the latest movie adaption of Pride and Prejudice was uncanny.

And the fact that his personality was also nearly identical to Mr. Collins would be almost comical if he wasn’t so awkward to be around.

Kira must have seen my expression because she hurried to say, “I know he’s not exactly your tall, dark and handsome type. But he just got his Ph.D. in physics, so what he lacks in looks he can make up for with intelligent conversation.”

Not wanting to seem completely shallow, I shrugged nonchalantly and said, “If I’m still dateless three weeks from now, I might take you up on that.”

Keyword: might.

Which meant I would most definitely be taking some photos and setting up an online dating profile as soon as I got home from work tonight instead of taking that bubble bath. Because there was no way I would have Marty be the guy I spent the evening trying to make my ex jealous of.

CHAPTER TWO

VINCENT

“Don’t forget to grab, New,” I told Jaxon after parking my truck in front of Emerson’s house on Monday evening. “You don’t want to miss him when you’re going to bed tonight.”

“I got him,” he called from behind me. And when I climbed out of my truck and opened the back, drivers side door, my blonde-haired, brown-eyed, four-year-old son was indeed holding the mangled looking, black-and-white stuffed cat in his hands.

We really needed to replace his favorite stuffed animal. New, had definitely seen some better days.

I waited for Jaxon to unbuckle his seatbelt and when he was ready, I helped him out of the truck and onto the wet asphalt drive.

Before shutting the door, I grabbed the backpack with his special blanket and raccoon stuffed animal tucked inside—the things he needed to sleep with no matter whose house he was staying at. “Ready to go see your mommy?” 

“Uh-huh.” He put his little hand in mine and looked at me with a big smile on his face. “I bet she’s going to be so excited to see me.”

“I bet she is.” I chuckled lightly, loving the enthusiasm Jaxon always had about him. “I bet she’s been missing you the whole time you were with me.”

I knew I missed him when he was with Emerson, at least.

Missed both of them if I was being honest.

But I would just keep that information to myself.

We walked up the path to the two-story Craftsman style home Emerson and I had custom-built a few years ago, and I couldn’t help but feel the twinge of remorse that came every time I dropped Jaxon off after his nights with me.

This beautiful home had once been a place of peace and love for our family—the place I could come to after a long practice or game. But now it was just a reminder of all the dreams and plans Emerson and I had had for a future that would never happen now. 

Jaxon and I stepped onto the front porch and I was just about to knock on the front door when Jaxon pulled on the door handle and opened it.

“Mom!” Jaxon called in a loud voice as he stepped into the entryway. “I’m back.”

“Hold on, bud,” I said when he was about to stomp right into the main part of the house with his wet snow boots. “You need to take off your boots before you go walking on your mom’s nice, clean floors.”

I didn’t need Emerson complaining about me not respecting the rules she’d set up for her house since I’d moved out. 

Even though she argued all day in court, that girl was never too tired for a fight if I gave her the right ammunition.

Jaxon seemed to remember how serious his mom’s no shoes in the house rule was at my mention of it, because he stopped in his tracks and went to sit on the bench next to the entryway closet and took off his boots, letting them drop onto the rug.

When it looked like he was just going to leave them there, I crossed my arms. “Is that where your shoes are supposed to go?”

Jaxon’s shoulders dropped and he sighed like I imagined a teenager would and said, “I was going to put them away,” in the sassiest tone I’d ever heard from him.

“I was just making sure.” I raised an eyebrow. “It looked like you were leaving the room.” 

Jaxon could be the sweetest and most polite four-year-old in the world, but either he was hitting puberty about nine years too early or his preschool teacher’s teenage daughter had been helping out after school again because he was definitely picking up on this new attitude from somewhere.

He jumped off the bench and opened the door to the closet next to it where he and Emerson kept their shoes and dropped them in his shoe basket.

“Good job, Buddy,” I said when he closed the door.

He smiled up at me, the sass from a second ago already gone from his face. “Now you can come see my dinosaurs.”

I looked around the entryway and down the hall, wondering where Emerson was. She usually came right to the door when Jaxon got home.

“Maybe I should go make sure your mom is home first and make sure she’s okay with it,” I said. Even though I usually came into the entryway, and sometimes even into the living room when I dropped off Jaxon, I hadn’t gone upstairs in this house since Emerson had packed my bags for me and kicked me out.

Which had happened almost exactly a year ago.

So if I was to just make myself at home again and head upstairs without Emerson’s permission, I’d most likely get an earful about how it wasn’t my home anymore and I shouldn’t act like it was.

But Jaxon must not have heard me because he called, “I’ll race you to my room,” before disappearing down the hall and up the staircase.

So I quickly slipped off my shoes and started after him. 

Emerson’s favorite band Rykker Peak’s music grew louder the closer I got to the center of the house and when I reached the end of the hall and peeked my head around the corner, I found my ex-wife sitting on the tufted cream couch in the living room with her phone in her hand, her arm extended like she was taking a selfie.

“Um, hi,” I said, clearing my throat to get her attention.

She must have really been in the zone with her pose because at the sound of my voice, she startled and her phone dropped out of her hand and onto the couch cushion.

“Vincent!” Her hand went to her chest when she turned my direction. “H-how long have you been standing there?”

“I just walked in.” I slipped my hands into the pockets of my joggers. “We weren’t sure if you were home.”

“Yeah, sorry I was…” She glanced back to where her phone was sitting on the couch and flipped it over so it was face down. Then she got to her feet and faced me. “I was just listening to some music to unwind.”

But the guilty look in her green eyes had me wondering if there was something more.

Why did she look guilty? Did it have something to do with the selfies she was taking?

Had she been sending photos of herself to someone?

Her hair and makeup looked fresh, almost like she’d touched it up since getting home from work. Emerson was anything but someone who didn’t care about how she presented herself to the world. But after being married to the woman for almost four years, I had learned to pick up on the signs of when she was dressed up for something special. 

And that navy blue dress she wore was fitted to her slender frame in a way that I knew it wasn’t what she wore to court today.

A surge of unwanted jealousy pulsed through my veins.

Who was she all dressed up for?

I darted my gaze around to make sure I wasn’t about to meet a new boyfriend of hers. I didn’t find anyone, so I forced myself to take a deep breath through my nose and released it slowly.

Forcing a calm expression onto my face, I said, “Jaxon wanted to show me his new dinosaurs in his room. Is it okay if I head upstairs to check them out?”

“Oh, sure.” She smoothed her hands down the sides of her dress, drawing my eyes to her feminine curves. “I’m guessing he already ran upstairs?”

“He seemed really excited.”

“Go ahead and go on up then.” She waved her hand toward the stairs. “I just have to wash my dinner dishes and I’ll be up to put him to bed.”

I looked at the dishes on the coffee table that I hadn’t noticed before.

Did it make me a bad person to be relieved that she had eaten alone instead of having just gotten back from a dinner date?

“Is something wrong?” she asked when she noticed me staring at her empty wineglass and plate.

“No…” I shrugged, hoping to come off disinterested. “I was just looking at your dishes.”

Her blonde eyebrows knit together. “You were looking at my dishes?”

“Yeah…” And to avoid going into just what exactly interested me about her dishes, I cleared my throat and said, “Is that a new dress? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”

“It’s the bridesmaid dress I’ll be wearing to Kira and Mike’s wedding.” She looked down at the dress briefly. “I was just trying it on again to make sure it still fit after the holidays.”

“A bridesmaid dress?” I asked, confused. “I thought it was traditional for brides to pick out ugly bridesmaids’ dresses for their friends?” 

Because if that was the case, Kira had failed in that department. Emerson just might outshine the bride on her wedding day if she showed up looking like that.

Not that I would dare tell her that.

“So it looks okay?” She did a little turn to the side.

“Yeah.” I swallowed. 

Looking okay would be an understatement.

She’s not your wife anymore, I reminded myself.

I made myself look at the oversized clock on the wall behind her instead of raking her in even more.

Emerson had always been a beautiful woman. She had the looks of a supermodel, but the heart of a small-town girl. It was something that had attracted me to her in the first place. 

But even though she was easily the prettiest girl in every room she stepped into, she never seemed to know it.

She must have noticed the admiration in my eyes though because she let out her cute, contented giggle and said, “Good. Hopefully that means my date will like it.”

My attention shot back to her face. “You have a date?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She bent down to pick up her dishes, avoiding my gaze.

“Anyone I know?” I asked, even though I knew I shouldn’t look like I cared.

“It’s a secret.” She shrugged and started walking toward the kitchen. 

“A secret?” I raised an eyebrow and followed her.

“Yes.”

Why was she being so mysterious all of a sudden? Was she trying to make me jealous?

Because it was working.

“Would those selfies you were taking when I walked in happen to be for this guy?” I asked, unable to help myself.

She stopped walking momentarily like the question startled her, but after a short pause she looked over her shoulder with sultry eyes and said, “It’s really none of your business, but yes, maybe they were.”

And the jealous pit that instantly hit my stomach with her affirming that she was dressed up for some other dude was not pleasant in the least.

“Kira said you were bringing a date too.” She stepped up to the sink and started rinsing off her dishes. “So it sounds like you’ve been busy off the fields as well as on.”

I frowned. “Kira said I had a date?” 

Emerson nodded. “She told me today after court.” 

Why would she say that? I had told Mike that I might show up with one of our teammate’s sister-in-laws if his wife arranged it.

But nothing was set in stone.

And if I was to be honest with myself, I knew that there was a part of me that had hoped Emerson would show up alone so I could continue with my New Year’s resolution of convincing her to give me one more shot.

“Anyway.” She set her plate on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. “I hope we can both enjoy the wedding without feeling too awkward about seeing the other and their date.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” I mumbled, feeling my heart sink from my chest to my stomach. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

She put the rest of her dishes in the dishwasher and then turned back around to face me. “Are you bringing anyone I know?”

“Um…” I said, wondering if I should just admit that Kira was misinformed about my plus one status. 

But deciding I’d rather play the game she was playing, I said, “My date is a secret too.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Really?”

I nodded. “Yes.” 

Especially since it was a mystery to me at the moment as well.

Looks like I’d probably be telling Chelsea Stockton to go ahead and set me up with her sister after all.

Emerson looked like she was about the say something more when Jaxon’s little footsteps sounded on the tile floor.

“I’ve been waiting forever!” he said in his impatient voice, his hands balled up into fists and resting on his waist. “Aren’t you going to come see my dinosaurs?”

“Yes, of course.” I stood up straighter. “I was just talking to your mom for a minute.” I held my hand out for him to take and lead me up the stairs. “But let’s go see your dinosaurs before it’s time for you to go to bed.”

***

“Ta-dah!” Jaxon said with a huge smile on his face as he gestured to the row of colorful dinosaurs he had lined up on the bookshelf next to his bed.

“Wow, those are so awesome!” I said, taking in the various dinosaurs that looked like they belonged in the movie Jurassic Park. “Is that a Utahraptor?” I pointed to the brown, ferocious-looking creature covered in feathers. 

He nodded, his face growing more excited that I would know the name. “That’s my favorite one.”

“I thought so.” I smiled and went to sit on his bed so I could get a closer look. “It looks awesome.”

He grabbed out another brown dinosaur with its mouth open and a spiky tongue sticking out. “And this is the Velociraptor. It’s my other favorite.” He put it in my hands and said, “Let’s fight.”

So when he picked up the Utahraptor which was clearly the bigger dinosaur of the two, we started a little dinosaur battle, adding the others from the lineup in as the game went on.

I was just about to have a green Tyrannosaurus Rex join in on the action when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that Emerson was watching us from the doorway.

“Is it time for Jaxon to go to bed?” I asked, setting T-Rex back on the bookshelf.

Emerson nodded. “It’s already eight o’clock.”

“Five more minutes?” Jaxon turned to Emerson with a hopeful look in his brown eyes. And I found myself hoping for more time with him as well.

I hated that the amount of time I could spend with my son was now dictated by a custody agreement.

But she shook her head and said, “We have to wake up early in the morning, so you’ll have to play dinosaurs with your daddy another time.”

Jaxon sighed loudly, and I worried he would throw a fit. But he surprised me by saying, “Fine,” and started setting his dinosaur’s back on the bookshelf.

And as he put his dinosaurs back the way he had them earlier, I glanced around his room for the first time. And as I looked around, a wave of nostalgia hit me. Even though it had been a year since I’d been in his room, nothing had really changed in it. Emerson had changed a lot of the decor in the entryway and living room—switching out the old family photos for newer photos of just her and Jaxon. But on the wall across from me were the newborn photos Emerson had framed and the last family photo we’d taken all together in front of an old barn.

I studied the photo for a moment, remembering back to the day it was taken. Jaxon was almost three and Emerson’s hair had been shoulder-length at the time with a few streaks of dark pink underneath. My arm was around her waist, holding her tight against my side, and she was holding Jaxon in front of her. 

I specifically remembered her telling me she wanted to hold Jaxon for the photos because she was self-conscious of the slight bulge she had in the stomach area after suffering a miscarriage the month before.

I’d told her she looked great, and that it was hardly noticeable, but she had insisted on holding him anyway because she didn’t want to look at those photos and remember the sad times.

I tore my gaze away from the photo and found that Emerson was watching me.

Could she see the regret that had washed over me as I studied what was once our happy family?

“That’s his favorite photo,” she said, an uncomfortable look on her face. “I tried to put it away one day, but he threw a fit and wouldn’t let me.”

And with those few words from Emerson, my heart broke a little for my son.

I watched my little boy who thrived on organization line his dinosaurs up in just the right way. I looked at his bed where he had already put his stuffed cat New next to his older stuffed cat named Meow. He was already a little perfectionist like his mother, and he may act like a normal four-year-old boy most of the time, but the fact that he was so attached to a photo of his family back before I’d broken it, reminded me of just how much damage I had caused.

One stupid night, when I’d let my guard slip too far, had ruined everything we’d built together in one fell swoop.

My stomach knotted, and I scrubbed a hand over my face. What I wouldn’t give to go back and redo everything.

Go back and tell myself not to get physical therapy that night.

Tell myself to stop feeling sorry for myself and my injury and the worries I had about my career. 

To stop letting the miscarriage and infertility and Emerson’s desire to go back to work again put a stupid wedge between us. To stop feeling threatened by the fact that I’d married a strong and independent woman who didn’t need me like my patriarchal upbringing had told me a good wife should.

One night had ruined everything.

And I’d regret my decisions for the rest of my life.

“Thank you for putting your dinosaurs away,” Emerson said to our son, breaking into my train of thought. “Now it’s time for you to put on your pajamas and brush your teeth.”

“Okay,” he said and went to his dresser to pull out the dinosaur footie pajama’s Emerson had folded in the second drawer.

Deciding that was probably my cue to leave them, I stood and started toward the door.

I was just about to walk past Emerson when she spoke, “I forgot to tell you earlier, but congrats on winning the wild card game this weekend. That’s got to feel so good after all these years.”

“Yeah.” I looked down at her, trying to push away the thoughts of the past so I could be normal right now. “It’s pretty exciting. I was worried we might not pull it off when we were so far behind at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but the guys really came through for me.”

“That’s what I heard,” she said. “Kira told me how close it was.”

Kira told her?

My heart sunk as I realized what that meant. 

Emerson hadn’t watched the game.

All these years of talking about the day when the Dragons would finally advance in the postseason, all the times she’d told me she couldn’t wait to cheer me on as we did it, and she hadn’t even watched the game?

She must have seen the disappointment in my face because she looked down at the plush carpet and said, “I had a big case to prepare for, so I wasn’t able to watch it.”

A big case?

I cleared my throat and forced a smile. “And how did it go?”

Her face brightened. “It was a lot like you said your game went. I didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off, but we actually won.”

And the look on her face when our eyes met made my heart stop for a second. I loved seeing her like this.

So happy and full of life.

“That’s so awesome,” I said, and the smile on my face was genuine. I really was happy that she was doing well in her career. Even after everything, I wanted her to make her dreams come true.

In the past I would have pulled her into my arms and hugged her after hearing such great news, but even though the urge was still there to celebrate like that, I forced my arms to remain at my sides. 

Because we didn’t do that anymore.

We hadn’t touched in over a year.

She hadn’t let me touch her since I confessed everything to her.

Our eyes locked, and I worried she could read everything I was thinking in that moment. So before she could, I cleared my throat and said, “Anyway, I have practice early in the morning, so I better get back to my apartment.” 

“Oh, yeah,” she stepped back, almost like she too had gotten caught up in the moment we’d been sharing. “I-I have an early morning as well.”

I turned back to Jaxon, needing the distraction. “I’m going to go now, buddy. Come give me a big hug before I leave.”

He had finished changing into his pajamas and was just working on the snap at the top.

“Here let me help you with that,” I crouched down on my haunches, knowing that was the one part of footie pajamas that he still had a hard time doing on his own.

He ran to me and lifted his chin so I could snap the part of his pajama’s together. After doing that, I pulled him into my arms and kissed him on the cheek. “Have a good night buddy,” I said in a soft voice. “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“I’ll miss you.” His little arms squeezed my sides tighter. “Sleep well, Dad.”

I gave him one last kiss on the cheek and stood, and when I glanced back to Emerson, I saw what looked like a hint of tears in her eyes. But she quickly wiped them away so I couldn’t be sure if they’d really been there.

“Have a good night, Emerson,” I said, my voice coming out thicker than I wanted.

“Good night, Vincent.” She gave me a curt nod. “I’ll bring Jaxon to your apartment on Thursday night.”

I nodded, “I’ll see you then.”

And then I forced myself to walk down the hall, past the closed door that would lead into the bedroom I had once shared with Emerson, down the stairs and then out of the house. I climbed into my truck and drove back toward the apartment where I would sleep alone for the next two days. 

These nights when Jaxon was with Emerson were the longest.

At least I had a game to prepare for this weekend because it would make the time go by faster until I got to be with my son again.

Some days it was easier to live with myself and the mistakes I’d made. But tonight wasn’t one of those.

Want to read more? Pre-order your copy here.

I’m excited to let you know that my bestselling Ridgewater High series is all together for the first time in one box set! 

It wasn’t supposed to come out for another week…but let’s just say my computer has a mind of its own sometimes. If you don’t have all six books in my Ridgewater High series yet, this is your chance to grab them for a killer price.

Welcome to Ridgewater High, where the romance is sweet but the fireworks last forever. Fall in love with the boy next door, your brother’s best friend and the broken troublemaker with a heart of gold. This bestselling series is in one box set for the first time! Find your new book boyfriend today!

Meet Me There
A dark Chemistry lab. A fake British accent. It’s all fun and games until somebody falls in love.

Don’t Forget Me
Sparks are flying between these best friends. Could a practice kiss change everything? 

It Was Always You
What’s the first rule when pretending to date your brother’s best friend? Don’t let feelings get involved.

My Second Chance
They broke the rules. He broke their heart. Does their love deserve a second chance? 

My Mistletoe Mix-Up
She was supposed to kiss her crush under the mistletoe. She didn’t expect to kiss his bad-boy twin. 

Forever Yours
Her crush is back. Too bad she’s dating his best friend.

If you like heart-pounding romance with ballad-worthy chemistry, swoony kisses, and endearing characters, then you’ll love the Ridgewater High collection.

Grab it here!

I’ve been busy working on the second book in my Rich and Famous series which should be coming out around Thanksgiving time. It’s been so much fun to write so far and I’m excited to share the first two chapters of it with you today!

“The tree will be ready to decorate in just a few minutes,” my boss, Miss Hazel Burton said from behind me as I sat at the dining room table with my lunch, breaking me away from the social media feed that I’d been browsing through.

“Okay, I’ll be done with lunch in just a sec.” I glanced over to where Hazel was straightening the branches on the nine-foot artificial tree just a few feet away. 

We’d been working all week to get the bed-and-breakfast Hazel owned ready for the holiday season.

We’d already set up the Seaside Themed tree in the Cape Cod room this morning, and I’d finished decorating the tree in the Enchanted Forest room that I was staying in last night.

We just had the North Pole tree to set up today and then we’d be done with tree decorating for the year.

“Is that your old roommate Kate and her new baby?” Hazel asked after I went back to finishing my lunch.

I swallowed the bite of my grilled cheese sandwich. “Yeah. Isn’t he so cute?” I held my phone up so she could see the screen better.

“He’s adorable.” Hazel smiled.

I nodded. He was adorable—the perfect mixture of Kate and her husband Drew.

I scrolled through the rest of the newborn photos Kate had posted and tried not to think about the twinge of jealously that formed in my stomach as I thought about how lucky she was to have the perfect husband and baby while I was still single.

Not just single, but utterly single.

After I finished scrolling through the photos, I noticed that she had just shared the new trailer for the movie based on a screenplay she’d written.

Yes, my awesome roommate hadn’t only married the famous “Billionaire Bachelor”, Drew Burrows, but she also was becoming a famous screenwriter in her own right.

It was hard not to be jealous of her success when the gossip blog I’d created in college, that had once been thriving, was now as stale as the package of potato chips sitting in the backseat of my car. 

Sure, my life was much better now than it had been all growing up. But I just thought things would be different when I turned twenty-six. I thought I’d at least have my life a little more figured out by now.

I turned on the sound for Kate’s movie trailer and decided to focus on that instead of my failed dreams. On the screen was a man walking out of a foggy darkness. We could only see the bottom half of him at first. His black suit pants and jacket were tattered and dirty like he’d just been in a fight or disaster. But even with the disheveled look, I knew he was hot and trim. Kate always wrote her characters to be that way at least.

The camera panned up to the man’s torso. His dress shirt was ripped at just the right place for us to see that he must have a great upper body workout routine. But before I could drool too much over the actor’s abs or the perfectly sculpted chest, it moved up to his face.

And that’s when I choked on the sip of water I’d just swallowed.

Not because the guy was unattractive, but because for those few seconds I had allowed myself to be attracted to him!

How had Kate let this happen? How had she allowed the director to cast Justin Banks—the guy who had turned me into the laughing stock of my high school—as the lead in her movie?

Had she completely forgotten everything I’d told her about him?

I didn’t care if he was one of the most famous actors in the business or that almost every movie he starred in turned into an international blockbuster.

“She must have shared the wrong movie trailer,” I mumbled as I watched the character Justin was playing knock on the front door of a run-down house.

“Did you say something to me?” Hazel asked.

“No.” I shook my head and held up my phone for her to see what I was watching. “I’m just mumbling about my old roommate Kate.”

Hazel furrowed her brow like she still didn’t understand what I was talking about.

I sighed and paused the video. “You remember when I told you that Kate was having one of her screenplays turned into a movie?”

Hazel nodded. 

“Well, I thought she just wanted to be mysterious about who they had cast for the lead. I hadn’t realized she was actually just keeping it a secret because she knew how much I hate the actor.”

“Oh.” Hazel nodded as understanding showed on her face. “I’m guessing that Justin is starring in another movie?”

Justin.

She said his name like they were old friends. Like he wasn’t the guy who made me bawl my eyes out on the night that I should have been attending my senior prom.

Hazel must have seen my grimace because she said, “Do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive him? You graduated from high school so long ago. Don’t you think it’s time to move on? You know what they say…”

“That holding a grudge is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies?” I finished for her.

She may have said that quote to me once or twice before.

“I just wonder if there’s something we don’t know about that night.” She shrugged and finished straightening the branch she was working on. “Justin always seemed like such a sweetheart to me.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Yeah, well. I thought that too until he stood me up and made me feel like an idiot.”

All the girls at our small high school had told me I was crazy to drop hints about him taking me to the final dance of our senior year, but I hadn’t listened to them. Justin had always been kind to me, unlike all the other guys who had made fun of me for being forty pounds overweight.

When he did ask me to the dance, I’d thought that my dreams of having a high school boyfriend could possibly come true.

But he was just like every other guy at our school who made fun of the nerdy fat girl. He may not have said the insults out loud, but I’d gotten the message loud and clear. I wasn’t any boy’s type.

Well, if only Justin Banks could see me now.

It had taken a few years, and it had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I’d finally shed all that extra weight during college. Sure, I had stretch marks here and there, but I looked pretty dang good if I didn’t say so myself. I was finally a healthy weight for my five-foot-nine-inch frame.

I’d even grown out my black hair and learned how to apply makeup to help compliment my new look.

Not that Justin would be that impressed. He did work with and date some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Plus, in order to see my transformation, he’d have to actually come back to Sutton Creek. And he hadn’t been back since we’d graduated high school. He was out of here and off to California almost as soon as they’d handed him his diploma.

“Are you about ready to grab the ornaments from the basement? Or would you like to finish your video first?” Hazel eyed my phone which was still paused on the image of Justin standing on the front porch of a house.

“No. I’m good.” I darkened the phone. “I’ll go get the North Pole ornaments from the basement.”

Justin didn’t need to be on my screen for a moment longer.

So after setting my dishes in the kitchen sink, I went to the basement of the inn and retrieved the box of Hazel’s special Christmas ornaments.

***

Decorating the tree took two hours with Hazel focusing on the lower half since she was barely over five-feet and me focusing on the upper half.

“Did the guy who reserved the whole place ever let you know what time we should expect him?” I asked Hazel, hooking a sparkly white bulb on a high branch.

When Hazel had told me about the odd reservation several months ago, I had been intrigued since we’d never had one person book the entire bed-and-breakfast before.

But when she’d told me that the reservation hadn’t indicated any other guests, I’d been confused.

What kind of person needs five rooms for himself?

Did he plan to store his luggage in the Cape Cod Room, take naps in the Island Paradise Room, shower in the Safari room and then alternate nights sleeping in the Victorian and Mediterranean rooms?

I’d tried looking him up online, to see if he looked as high maintenance as I imagined. But there were way too many guys named Tyler Smith for me to get very far in figuring the mystery guest out.

“Do you think he’s like a spy or something?” I asked, trying one of my theory’s out on Hazel. “Maybe he’s planning to swear us to silence and make sure no one ever knows he came to Sutton Creek on a top-secret mission.”

Hazel’s peach-colored lips quirked up into a half-smile. “That would be something, now wouldn’t it?”

But she said nothing else.

She had to be at least curious about this guy.

“Do you really not know anything about our mysterious guest?” I grabbed another ornament out of the box. “I mean, for all we know he could be some sort of serial killer and reserved the whole place to insure that no other guests are around to witness our murders.”

Hazel chuckled. “I think I’ll take my chances. I’m already seventy-five, I doubt anyone would see anything fun about killing an old woman.”

“She’s correct.” A deep voice said from behind us, startling the crap out of me. “I much prefer taking out my serial killer tendencies on people closer to my own age.”

I whipped my head around, my stomach jumping into my throat as I looked to see who had snuck into the inn without either of us noticing.

And in the next moment, I was gaping at the last person I ever imagined coming face to face with again.

I blinked my eyes a few times, not certain I wasn’t hallucinating. But when my eyes focused again, they saw a guy with the same tall frame, same chiseled jawline and same golden-brown eyes that I’d seen in Kate’s movie trailer at lunch.

It was indeed my biggest regret turned Hollywood royalty standing ten feet away.

Justin Banks

What the heck was he doing at The Sutton Creek Inn?

Was he lost on his way to his next filming location?

Really, really lost?

“Justin!” Hazel called, her voice covered in warmth and excitement. “We weren’t expecting you for a couple more hours.”

Wait, what? 

The way she said it made it sound like she was more surprised about the time he arrived more than about him being the mysterious guest.

Had she known all along that it was him?

Had she just put some random guy’s name on the computer so I wouldn’t know Justin was coming?

When she went to hug him like he was an old, and welcome friend I wondered if I’d been transported to some alternate universe.

How could this be happening?

First, Kate betrayed me by not telling me he was starring in her movie and now Hazel was welcoming him back to Sutton Creek with open arms?

Did no one remember what he’d done to me?

Justin brushed the snow from his blond hair before bending over to embrace my short friend.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said, pulling her into his arms like he too thought they were on a hugging basis. “I hope it was a good surprise.”

“It’s a wonderful surprise,” Hazel said, her voice muffled against his coat.

And all I could do was just stare, with my mouth hanging open, at the old woman hugging Hollywood’s golden-boy. 

Since when did Hazel and Justin even know each other?

Sure, I had dragged her to the spring play our senior year where Justin played the lead. And, yes, anyone who watched movies would know who Justin Banks was.

But that didn’t explain how Justin knew Hazel. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would randomly hang out with an older woman back when we were growing up. He hadn’t been a homeless eighteen-year-old in need of a job and a place to stay since she’d aged out of the foster care system halfway through her senior year like me. 

And it’s not like they were family. Hazel had never married or had any children of her own. I had been the closest thing to a daughter she’d ever had to my knowledge. So it wasn’t like he was a grandson or anything.

None of this added up.

When they pulled away from the hug, Hazel gestured to me with a smile. “And of course you must remember Ivy Evans.”

Justin’s gaze went from Hazel to me, his eyes scanning over me from head to toe. As he inspected me, my heart pounded in my chest. We hadn’t been face to face in so many years.

Did he even remember me?

I did looked different from the last time he’d been in town. My hair was longer, my skin was clearer and my body finally had the curves of an hourglass instead of the Pillsbury doughboy.

When he finished his slow scan and his eyes met mine again, there was a look of curiosity but not full-on recognition.

“It’s been a long time,” he said, rubbing his thumb and forefinger against his chin. “But I did know an Ivy Evans back in the day with dark hair.  Is it possible that the girl I graduated with turned into this beautiful woman in front of me who fantasizes about serial killers coming to the inn?”

I probably should have been flattered that he’d just called me beautiful, but the way he said it only reminded me of how unattractive he must have found me back in high school. And that just reminded me of my miserable senior prom all over again.

“Yes, we did go to high school together,” I said, my tone coming out icier than it should have as Hazel’s employee. “And while you may have overheard me talking about serial killers, I am not obsessed with them.”

“Sorry?” He held up his hands and gave me a look that told me he didn’t understand why I’d snapped at him. 

I wanted to say that if anyone in here was obsessed with serial killers, it would be him since he’d played one a couple of years ago.

But saying that would just make him think I was still obsessed with him and actually cared about his career.

Which I didn’t.

I just cared about movies. And he happened to be in too many of them.

Stupid natural talent and other-worldly good looks of his.

“Anyway,” Hazel said, breaking the awkward tension in the room. “I bet you’re worn out from the long day of traveling and would like to get settled in your room.”

“That would be great.” He looked back at Hazel with a grateful smile. “I do have some business to take care of later on so it would be nice to rest up before I go.”

“Ivy?” Hazel looked back to me. “Will you please help our guest get checked in and find his room?”

What? Me?

“I, um…” My mouth went dry as I tried to think of a way out of this. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather help him? You two seem like you have a lot of catching up to do.”

Hazel shook her head. “I have a doctor’s appointment that I need to be getting to. So if you could take care of our guest that would be wonderful.”

She had another doctor’s appointment? Hadn’t she just gone last week?

Was she just making stuff up to force Justin and me together?

She had made that whole comment at lunch about how I needed to get over my grudge. Was this her way of forcing that?

“You’ve checked in hundreds of guests before,” Hazel said when I didn’t make a move to help. “The tree will still be there for you to decorate later.”

Well, I guess I didn’t have a choice then, did I?

I hung the snowman ornament in my hand on the branch nearest me and smoothed my palms along my jeans. 

Then in my most professional voice, I said, “Let’s get you checked in then, Mr. Banks.”

I strode past him quickly, eager to get this over with. This was Hazel’s inn and Justin was paying good money to stay for the week. I wouldn’t give him a reason to leave a bad review or ask for a refund so he could stay with our competition across the street.

Justin grabbed the handle of his luggage and followed me. Once I was behind the desk, I pulled up the page that showed his reservation information.

“Let’s see if we can find the right room for you to rest in,” I said, my fingers shaking as I worked on the computer.

Stupid nerves.

“That would be great.” He grabbed a lollipop from the basket on the counter. “Mind if I take one?” he asked in his smooth voice.

“Have as many as you like.”

And even though I knew better, my cheeks warmed when I glanced up at him. 

Up close and in person he was somehow even better looking than I’d remembered. I’d always loved his eyes—the golden brown color had always been my Achilles heel. But there was something about the way they looked today that caught me off guard. I didn’t know if it was because I’d just expected them to be dimmed or jaded looking after his years in Hollywood, but they were just as striking as ever. He still looked like he had the same magnetic personality that he’d always had.

He took the wrapper off the lollipop and I forced my gaze back to the screen. But when he seemed to look for a place to throw his wrapper away, I held out my hand and said, “I can throw that away for you.”

“I can see you’re a mind reader.” His lips quirked up into a half-smile as he placed the wrapper in my palm. And as my fingers curled around the wrapper, I tried not to notice the zap of electricity that shot through me with his brief touch.

I tossed the wrapper into the wastebasket at my feet and finished bringing up his check-in information.

“I see that Hazel put all of your information in wrong. Was that her idea or yours to use the name Tyler Smith?”

He pulled the sucker out of his mouth. “That was actually me.” He smiled, showing his perfectly straight teeth. “I didn’t want you to get too excited about seeing me again.”

“Since you barely remembered me and probably had no idea that I was working here.” I raised my eyebrows, not about to flirt with him.

He shrugged. “Fine, so maybe I didn’t know you worked here. But I do remember you.”

“Then I’m guessing that means you also haven’t forgotten why I probably won’t be asking for your autograph?”

He looked down and swallowed, his face ashen. When he spoke, his voice was lower than it had been a moment ago. “So I’m guessing you still haven’t forgiven me for that night then?”

“I’m surprised you remember,” I said.

I went back to typing on the screen, pretending like I wasn’t that interested in what he had to say about it. When really, everything inside me suddenly went on high alert as it hoped to finally have the answers I’d been waiting for eight years.

“It’s not likely that I’ll ever forget that night,” he finally said.

I waited for him to say more. To apologize or at least tell me why he’d done what he’d done. But he just put the sucker back in his mouth and pulled out his credit card.

Which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising. He hadn’t been able to give me any sort of reason for why he’d stood me up that night so long ago, he wouldn’t have any better answers today.

It was simple. I had been delusional to think he might have liked me. But in reality, he had only said yes to play a prank on the fat girl.

At least he’d looked a little remorseful about it. That was probably as much of an apology that I’d ever get.

I told him the total for his stay and swiped his card through the card reader. Then when the paperwork had printed, I handed him a pen. “If you could just sign here at the bottom, then I can show you to your rooms.”

He took the pen from my fingers, this time careful not to touch me. Once that was all taken care of I pulled out the drawer where we kept all the room keys.

“Would you like the keys to all the rooms now, or do you just want one for the room you’ll be resting in this afternoon?”

“All the keys?” He furrowed his brow. “I’ll only be needing one room.”

I looked back at the booking. Had the system made a mistake? Were we actually underbooked and needing to fill the rest of the rooms?

I checked the screen again.

“Is something wrong?” Justin asked.

I bit my lip and looked back at him. “Our system says you reserved all our rooms. But that can’t be right.”

“Oh, no that’s right.”

“It is?” I asked, relief filling me.

“I reserved the whole place so I could have some privacy.” There was a tiredness in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before. “I didn’t want the paparazzi getting tips about my whereabouts.” 

“So no one will know about your intent to murder Hazel and me in our sleep?”

A slight smile showed on his lips and his eyes brightened a bit. “That’s exactly it.”

“I thought so.”

And despite myself, I smiled for a second because the back and forth reminded me of how we’d always bantered in high school.

“Do you have a room with a king-sized bed that faces west?” He asked, bringing me back to the present.

“The Safari Room would fit that description.”

“Perfect. I’ll sleep in there.”

So with that settled, I grabbed the key with the tiger key chain. “I’ll show you to your room.” 

As I stepped up the dark wood staircase, I briefly wondered why he specifically needed a king-sized bed if he was the only person staying in the room. Sure he was tall and muscular, but a queen-sized bed should have given him plenty of space to sleep.

He’d said he’d reserved all the rooms because he wanted privacy. Was he planning to do something here that he didn’t want the media knowing about?

An image of one of the tabloid articles I’d read at Lucy’s supermarket popped into my head. He was in the tabloids with a different girl every other week. Was he hoping to have a week-long fling while he was in Sutton Creek? Hannah Olsen, the girl he’d broken up with before the senior prom had just split with her fiancé. Maybe seeing her was his reason for coming home?

That would make quite the story.

If only my gossip blog was still going. This would be the exact type of story that my readers would have eaten up. And I’d be the first one with the inside scoop.

Plus, getting my own little revenge on Justin would be fun.

“Is this it?” Justin’s voice broke me from my thoughts. He was nodding toward the dark wood door that I’d just walked past with a placard that read “African Safari” on it.

“Yes, that’s it.” My cheeks heated as I turned back toward the door.

“Let me guess,” he said, his eyes bright with mischief. “You were trying to test me to see if I could read, right?”

“Sure.” My cheeks burned even more. “We’ll go with that.”

And before I could do something else that would make him think I was missing a few too many brain cells, I stepped between him and the door and turned the key in the lock.

“So, this is the room.” I stepped inside. Along the wall to the right was a beautiful four-poster bed with sheer, white curtains tied to the bedposts like the beds I imagined people stayed on when on an African Safari. The bed rested on a gorgeous zebra-striped rug that Hazel had gotten an amazing deal on at an estate sale last summer when she was updating the room.

The room had a very light and airy feel to it, with lots of whites and light browns. There were only a few decorations in the room that helped it feel more open and roomy. And the tree I’d decorated yesterday with elephants, lions, and giraffes sat in a corner, bringing a nice cozy feel to the room.

I looked to Justin to gauge his reaction to Hazel’s interior decorating. Did he think it was quaint since he was probably used to staying in high-end suites at the most expensive hotels in the world?

Or could he appreciate the attention to detail that Hazel had taken while creating her masterpiece?

It relieved me to see a smile on his lips when I searched his face. “This room is awesome,” Justin said. He rolled his blue suitcase in the rest of the way and set it on the luggage rack near the bathroom. “Are all the rooms decorated like this?”

“They all have different themes. But yes, Hazel made each of them unique and doesn’t have the highest-rated bed-and-breakfast in Sutton Creek for nothing,” I said, proud that even The Sutton Creek Inn could impress a rich star like him.

“I might have to look at those other rooms I reserved then.” He shrugged out of his coat, revealing a nicely fitting maroon sweater that clung to his chest and shoulders.

Dang, for all his faults, he knew how to wear a sweater.

When he turned back to me after hanging his coat in the closet I snapped my attention back to the task at hand.

“Anyway, I’ll just leave the key here for you.” I set the key on the hook by the door. “The bathroom should have fresh towels and anything else you might need. We usually serve breakfast from seven to ten, but since you are the only guest here this week, we can just have it ready whenever you like.”

“Since I’m on vacation I’d like to sleep in, so can we go with nine for breakfast?”

I nodded. “Nine o’clock it is.”

I paused, trying to think if there was anything else I had missed.

When nothing else came to mind, I said, “Anyway, I hope you enjoy your stay at The Sutton Creek Inn and if you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Thank you, Ivy,” he said. And I knew I’d deny it if anyone ever asked me, but a few butterflies fluttered in my stomach at the way he said my name. Like he remembered me and our friendship hadn’t been all pretend on his part.

I grabbed the door handle and stepped backward to leave him alone. “Enjoy your rest. I’m sure I’ll see you later.”

He nodded. “I’ll look forward to it.” And when I let myself meet his gaze, it actually looked like he meant those words.

So before I could say anything that would ruin the brief truce we’d seem to come to, I closed his door and walked back down the stairs to finish decorating the Christmas Tree.

As long as we kept our interactions to a minimum, I might just survive this week with Justin sleeping one door away from me.

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For Alyssa, Friday nights are all the same. She cheers at whatever sporting event is in season, then goes to a party with her boyfriend, Trey, and tries to keep him from getting too drunk. So when her childhood crush, Jace Carmichael, shows up one night, she’s not sure what to do with the feelings that come flooding back. 

When Jace moves back to Ridgewater, he only has two goals: fit in with his old friends and make sure Trey never finds out that he kissed Alyssa the night before he moved away. But when he discovers that Trey might be cheating on Alyssa, he wonders if those goals are worth having anymore.

Soon, Jace confronts his friend and accidentally lets his true feelings slip. To his surprise, Trey challenges him with a bet. One week to charm Alyssa and if he succeeds, Trey will step aside. Making a bet is crazy, but Jace is desperate for a chance at Alyssa’s heart. As long as she doesn’t find out, it will be worth it, right?

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What’s the first rule when staying at your best friend’s house for the week? Don’t fall for her older brother.

I never paid much attention to my best friend’s older brother until he refused to kiss me.
After that humiliating day, I promised myself that Liam Turner would regret ever making me feel less than worthy.
Then I got stuck spending the week at his house.
But that’s okay because I had plans to find my next summer boyfriend and show Liam just how many guys want me.
I didn’t expect Liam to suddenly be charming. And since when did he get so hot?
A practice date seemed like a great idea—a way to show Liam what he had missed out on.
Falling for the enemy was not on the agenda.