I’m the Dixon who left. Through the good, bad, and worst imaginable, I stayed gone. When I return home after a decade, I’m not surprised by the cold reception from my family...or my brother’s best friend. Emberly Olsen. I spent my childhood tormenting her. Now these days with her feel like the cruelest sort of unintended revenge. We’ve changed. She’s changed. Pure confidence and sensuality, but her pouty lips and heavy-lidded eyes scream contempt. And word around town? She’s untouchable.

There are moments in our lives that can change the course we’re on. I believe when faced with those moments, we should take the unknown path. The night I stumbled into a burlesque club in downtown Los Angeles, I took one of those paths and changed my life. I found a home I’d never had with my own parents. I found a confidence I’d never known as a prima ballerina. I found my passion. And it inadvertently led me back to the one moment I’d let slip away - to him. To a love so pure and whole and carnal, I thought it could withstand anything.

If my childhood taught me anything, it was to survive. Now I have a deep-rooted mistrust of people and a wall of steel and ice surrounding my heart. So, when Reed Ryan steps into my life, I know I need to keep him far away. He’s everything I grew up hating. Fighting. Fleeing. Devastatingly handsome, he looks like a drunken regret and has heartbreak written over every inch of his body - literally. He’s the quintessential bad boy...and he’s a cop. But the man is my undoing. 

Some demons we can't outrun. Kane Legend is mine. The gorgeous boy who always finds me. The ruthless bully I've spent my life avoiding. Even leaving Harrow Creek wasn't enough to escape his torment. Because I didn't stay away and neither could he. One weekend home...one party. One night that ruined everything. 

Cutler Ryder was everything I wasn’t. He was the hockey star. I was an outcast. He was best friends with my stepbrother, that same stepbrother who hated me. His two parents loved him. My mom was a junkie. My dad barely knew me. Years passed. I got my life together. Cut went onto NHL stardom. Then there was a text. 

Deacon was rough on the exterior, but apparently on the inside? Mr. Single-and-Ready-to-Mingle was a baby whisperer. After that night, we became friends. He’d go for coffee runs. Come over to chat. Normal friend stuff. But over time, our conversations ran deeper. We got closer. Until one night we crossed the line.  

"She went home with someone else that night?" I would like to make it known, I have a lot more swagger than what it seems. I don't normally ask a girl out, have her fail to recognize it's a date, and then give me a high five - as if I'm her wingman - and take off with someone else. No. Normally I'm the one taking the girl home, but with Stella, it's been one failed attempt after another and frankly, I'm done trying. But thanks to my best friend getting married in Hawaii right before the school year starts, I'm stuck on a tropical island.

I knew it was a bad idea to get on the elevator. Because now, I have three problems. Number one, I’m stuck in the elevator. Number two, I’m soaking wet from the rain. Number three, he got in before the doors closed. Miles Humphries. My neighbor. The one I hate. The biggest jerk I’ve ever met. Mr. Bachelor-for-Life and I, Rose Taylor, are like night and day. Imagine my jaw dropping when he asks me to be his fake fiancée. And move in with him. Together with my cat. Hello? That’s disaster waiting to happen. But then he makes me an offer I can’t refuse.

To be “just friends” with a guy, you’ve got to follow The Rules: Don’t touch him unnecessarily. Don’t share your intimate dreams with him (even if he asks). Don’t kiss him, and definitely don’t sleep with him. Scout Dunne and I have been “just friends” since childhood. I’m one of the few people who knows the first-round NFL draft pick wants more than a life of sports.

In the Virginia countryside outside of Washington, DC, Addy Wentworth was on a mission to make a new life for herself. When the opportunity arose, she settled in horse and wine country. Experiencing more than her fair share of tragedy and loss, she had plans for her future, one where failure wasn’t an option. And not just because people and cows were counting on her. She’d poured everything she had into her struggling vineyard, because once she’s in, she’s all in.

A beautiful, young American girl wound up stranded far from home on my doorstep. When she begged me to stay, I did what a good priest would do, and I said yes. But a good priest wouldn’t spend his days thinking about the fullness of her ruby red lips or feel the sting of envy with the way she draws men to her like flies to honey. A good priest would have stopped things before that first touch. And he certainly wouldn’t have given into temptation so easily, but when Cadence Thorn walked in, she brought me to my knees. 

Logan Jackson is all tattoos, beard, and swagger. With his devilish looks and unrepentant charm, he's a danger to my tattered heart. Especially when he makes it clear, I'm the one he wants. It doesn't matter how desperately I'd like to give in to the heated promises in his dark eyes or how my heart always stutters in his presence. I have to think about my son and giving him the life he deserves. But I underestimated the sheer determination Logan has to break down my walls brick by brick. The closer we become, the harder it gets to keep the past from intruding. 

Sinclair Amadeus Sterling, a.k.a. Mr. Superior Jackass with a God complex. Who also happens to be my blackmailer...gulp. Tall, dark, gazillionaire growly pants. The first time I met him, I kneed him in his very well endowed balls - don't ask! He had that tightly leashed, controlling air and a smoldering glare that made me damp in seconds. The only thing that sucks worse than his attitude is his (lack of) sense of humor! Honest. Sadly, he's also the one who could save my business from going bust. Hell! 

He's my business partner, my good friend, and the man I've craved for years. But I've resisted the sexy Brit, and I plan to keep up my walls because I've been there, done that, and I know how much it hurts when you let someone into your heart. Then an opportunity comes along for us to snag the business deal of a lifetime. The catch? We need to pretend we're married to pull off this high-stakes deal. 

Derek Osbourne’s life is mostly quiet. A routine that keeps him functioning, a job as a tattoo artist that keeps his rent paid and food in his belly, and if he’s alone through it well, there are worse things to be. With his complicated past, Derek is sure no one would ever want to deal with the struggle that comes along with loving someone who has severe PTSD...Then one night, during a raging storm, Derek finds himself stuck in an ATM vestibule with a quiet stranger, and it’s in that moment his world begins to change.