Showing results by author "Marika Ray" in All Categories

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.

If there's one man on the planet I shouldn't be looking at twice, it's Daire Beneventi. Sure, he's my sister's ex, but he's also the leather jacket to my quilt tote bag. He rides a Harley, frowns at everyone who makes the mistake of glancing at him, and closes real estate deals that have more zeroes than the number of dates I've been on recently. He's all wrong for me, but now I'm tasked with training him at the center we both volunteer at in our off hours. Except, maybe he's not the man I thought he was.

I have my fresh start in a new town, this time a widow with a preteen daughter who rolls her eyes enough to make them stay that way. Too bad my past mistake is also here to greet me. Daxon Hellman. Town a-hole. Hot young contractor hired to build my house in the woods. It's only when I'm face-to-face with him for the first time that I realize he's the mystery man from two years ago. It's a long story of too many drinks, grief that made me resort to acting out, and an encounter in the dirty bathroom of a bar. Try as I might, I can't forget that night.

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.

I'm getting by just fine on my own when the boy who stole my heart and ran away 12 years ago shows up in town again. He's a big shot baseball player now, needing my help to rehab his knee. If he'd just lay off the flirting and the dimples he throws with each grin, I might be able to do my job. Good thing I'm not dumb enough to fall for him a second time.

As a former professional baseball star, I'm thrown a curveball when my estranged teenage daughter lands on my doorstep during her senior year. Fresh into retirement and back in my small hometown of Blueball, I'm striking out at parenthood and desperate for coaching. Enter Shae Fletcher—once the girl next door I protected, now my daughter's sharp-tongued volleyball coach who seems to have a personal vendetta against me. Heated exchanges mask an undeniable chemistry that eventually ignites into secret late-night encounters.

I've been in love with my best friend since the day I met her freshman year of high school. She was a halo of sunshine on a rainy day, pulling me out of the shadows and making me feel like life was one big roller-coaster ride of excitement. Until the day we graduated and she left on the back of a Harley with some guy who didn't deserve her, middle fingers in the air. Twelve years later, she's back in Blueball, as if she hadn't broken my heart and never looked back.