I met the love of my life at ten years old. At sixteen, I gave him my heart. Three years later he was drafted to the NHL and moved across the country. Five years after, he’s back. And he’s meeting his daughter for the first time. I still hate him. Even if my heart says that’s a lie.

I didn’t believe my fractured heart and broken soul could endure any more pain. Until Jared rocks up to the art gallery where I work, with his fiancée in tow, and I’m drowning again. Seeing him brings everything to the surface, so I flee. Placing distance between us again, I’m determined to put him behind me once and for all. Then he reappears at my door, begging me for another chance. I know I should turn him away. Try telling that to my heart.

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.

Imagine walking unaware into your house and overhearing your best friend Candy and your husband Logan arguing in your bedroom about the baby they’ve made, and conspiring not to tell her husband O.B. After all, it would kill him to know that his best friend Logan has betrayed him. That is the situation in which pharmacist and independent mother of two, Keri Slater finds herself the day before her husband, Army combat medic Logan ships out on his fourth tour of duty from their idyllic home in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

In The Price to Love, Candy knows that her husband wants a baby, but she can’t give him one. When Neil pays for a surrogate and moves her into their home, he tells her not to worry, but she suddenly feels as if she’s on the outside looking in.