I’ve had a crush on my brother’s best friend my entire life. Once, in high school, I even got a taste of what it would be like to be with him, thanks to some well-placed mistletoe: incredible and humiliating. We always spend Christmas with Max’s family at our cabin, and every year I have to suffer through a blissful week with him in a completely platonic way. His steady stream of girlfriends have made him off limits...until now.

The bad boy and the golden girl have traded places….I’m back in Harvest Hollow after ten years to prove a point and to even a few scores. I’ve opened a new bar, and anyone expecting the old sweet and shy Jolie McGraw to be running it is in for a shock. I’m not the only one who’s changed: when the sheriff comes to tell me I’m the prime suspect in the most ridiculous crime in town history, it’s none other than Lucas Cole, the former star of my teenage stress dreams, wearing the badge.

After graduation, I thought I’d be off to grad school, doing research on my favorite poet. Instead, I’m renovating my late grandmother’s home and posting about the process on Instagram. Talk about a detour… But here I am. Turning Gran’s beach house into a bed and breakfast; a process that would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to deal with the grumpy lawyer living next door. It doesn’t help that the night Jake and I met, I got a little tipsy, and he had to carry me back to my hotel.

Before Logan Barnes was hockey’s hottest bad boy, he was my brother’s best friend … and my first crush. Oh, yeah—and the guy who ghosted me and broke my teenage heart.

I know Denver Talcott hates me as much as I hate him, but since we’re sharing custody of the same friend, I can’t get rid of him. Believe me, I’ve tried. Worse, he’s now working at the same startup as me. My dream job cannot be his dream job, because my dream is to not see him on a daily basis.