Showing results by author "Marika Ray" in All Categories

You could say I was a successful twenty-four-year-old, if you looked at my house sitting on the edge of a cliff with killer views of the Pacific Ocean. Or my bank account with seven figures from my coaching business. But according to my frenemy, the girl who invited me to her bachelorette party at an exclusive resort in Lake Tahoe, I was just a sad, lonely girl without a man by my side. I'd show her who was living the dream by finding a tall, dark, and handsome man to rock my world for one night.

Callan Hellman. Mr. Nice Guy paramedic. My best friend. He buys my friends flowers when he knows they've had a hard day. Who does that? Callan's the guy every girl wants to date and take home to mama. Not me though. We're just friends. Have been since elementary school. I was the weird girl who kept him laughing with my antics, even when his father abandoned his family and Callan hid those scars behind his smile. But due to my sudden medical diagnosis at twenty-four, Callan insists I move in with him.

I'm unemployed and down to my last dollar—thank you, stranger, who bought my coffee when my card was declined this morning. If that wasn't bad enough, I just T-boned the truck belonging to the guy I was meeting on a first date. Ethan Hellman, small-town sweetheart with a secret, and an instant—unbelievable—love for me despite the condition of his truck. It's not that I don't believe in love per se. It's just that I've done the calculations—it won't happen to me. And especially not now when I'm bouncing off rock bottom with the bruises to prove it.

Sophia Whittington is the girl next door. And Dillon Cunningham hates her with the fire of a thousand suns . . . Only, it's not hate as much as . . . something else. The things that happened between them in high school, coupled with the loss of his dad, are a big part of what drove Dillon to decide that his future would be far, far away from Solano Creek, his family, and especially, Sophia.

Dalton Cunningham has always been the comic relief in his family. And he's worried they may never see him as anything else, and that they might be right. It might be too late for his father to see Dalton prove himself as an adult, but it's not too late to show his brothers and his mom. His tool of choice? Social media. He's got the marketing down pat, and when he pulls in a classical dancer to build his brand, things really take off. The problem? That dancer is Rae Trask, and she doesn't appreciate some goofy hot wine guy stealing her dance videos and making a mockery of them.