Contemporary Romance

Cal Chase never expected to get a real job. Signing a major league contract out of college was the start of everything he'd worked for since he first picked up a baseball. After more than a decade in the majors, his marriage fell apart and an injury ended it all. Having nothing to do is nice until it's all you have to do. So he took an executive position at the bank that sponsors the stadium he once played in.

Then Barbara Murphy walks into his conference room.

Barbara ended things with Cal when he was in the minors. She loved him, but when her mother died, she didn't want a life on the road. At the time, staying put felt like the only thing that would keep her together. Eventually she built a career from the ground up, survived a painful divorce, and kept moving forward.

She wasn't planning on Cal Chase sitting across the table from her. She definitely wasn't planning on what came next.

Dale Montgomery never did relationships. As a first baseman for the Carolina Waves, life was simple and uncomplicated...exactly the way he liked it. Until he met Karen.

He's been asking her out for two years. She keeps saying no.

After losing her husband, Karen focused on one thing...being the best mom to her son Jeremy. Romance is a distraction she can't afford, no matter how persistent Dale Montgomery is.

Her friends keep telling her that men like Dale Montgomery don't come along every day. Maybe they're right.

She's spent two years saying no. After saying yes once, she's starting to wonder why.

Trey Youngman built a reputation playing baseball in New York, just not the kind he wanted. Gifted on the mound and difficult everywhere else, he burned through his shot with his first team and got sent down to the minor leagues. Getting called up to pitch for the Carolina Waves is his second chance...at his career and at becoming someone worth knowing.

Romance is nowhere on his radar. Then fate drops a pink-haired mural artist into his rideshare.

Nori has a type she avoids...wealthy, entitled, and convinced the rules don't apply to them. Trey Youngman is exactly that. Or so she thought.

He's spent years building walls. She's spent years painting over them. Somewhere between the life he's trying to leave behind and the woman he can't stop thinking about, the game has never felt this complicated.

Leo Marakis never believed in love at first sight. Then he wandered past an open studio door, watched Anjannette Peach spin around a pole, and fell hard.

She responded by slamming the door in his face.

Anjannette built Peaches & Pole from the ground up and she's not about to let anything…or anyone…derail her focus. Her last relationship messed with her heart, confidence, and sense of self. Getting all three back wasn't easy, and she's not risking them on some charming baseball player who can't seem to stay out of her building. But the more she sees him, the more she realizes he might be exactly the kind of man she didn't plan for.

Leo fell at first sight. Anjannette is taking a little more convincing. After all, there's no way he's as sincere as he seems.

Right?

A pink beach house in the Florida Keys. A hurricane bearing down. And two people who absolutely did not plan on sharing either.

Rusty Russell needed one thing this All-Star break — somewhere quiet to figure out why his pitching has gone sideways. His mom's boyfriend's empty vacation house seemed perfect.

Ivy Sherman also needed one thing — somewhere to hide from her spectacular run of bad luck while she figured out what to do with her life. Her dad's vacation house seemed perfect.

Neither of them knew the other had the same idea until Ivy walked in on Rusty in the shower.

Now they're stuck together in a pink house on the Gulf with nowhere to go, nothing but time, and an Irish Setter who has already decided he likes Rusty better than Ivy does.

Rusty has never met anyone quite like Ivy. She's chaotic, funny, and completely impossible to ignore. And Ivy is starting to think the man she walked in on might be exactly what she didn't know she needed.

If only his real life wasn't waiting on the other side of the storm.