"After years of dreaming, Jessica is finally getting married, but the marriage isn't exactly what she thought.
Daniel is her best friend, and she's known him all her life, but he's never gotten over losing his wife two years ago. His dream is to become the pastor of the church in their hometown, but the small-town congregation keeps balking over calling an unmarried minister. Since Daniel needs a wife and Jessica wants a husband and family, she proposes an arrangement that benefits both of them.
They can get married. They can build a life together. They can celebrate Christmas as a couple. It's fine that he doesn't love her. And it's fine that she's not exactly suited to be a small-town pastor's wife. And it's fine that she's more attracted to her sexy, brooding husband every day.
Jessica can be practical about this marriage. She knows what she's getting into, after all."
"For years, Deanna's eccentric grandmother has been trying to marry her off to a rich man, and she's finally managed to do it. Deanna has spent her life trying to take care of those she loves, and a six-month marriage should be a simple enough way to keep their historic Savannah house from falling down around their heads.
Sexy, obnoxious Mitchell Graves needs a wife to finalize a business deal, and he snaps up Deanna as the most expedient option. Because she's quiet, he thinks she'll be easy enough to manage as a wife.
He couldn't be more wrong."
"Vanessa never wanted to be a contractor, but ever since her husband died, she has been trying to hold together his business. Her attempts are constantly hampered by sexy, charming Joe Coleman, another local contractor who wants nothing more than to buy her out. Now they're thrown together in a job at Eden Manor, a bed and breakfast and huge renovation job that can only be completed if they work together.
Vanessa is willing to be a professional and work with Joe if she has to. But she trusted him in the past and only got burned as a result, so she's never going to let down her guard with him again.
It would be a lot easier if he wasn't so irresistible--and if he didn't seem to want so much more from her than her business."
"We meet every other Wednesday night in a downtown hotel. No dates. No commitments. No hearts or flowers. Just his body and mine.
Maybe I’m his second best. He’s definitely mine. But second best has never felt so good."
"Alice Grantham lost her fiancé and her job, so she’s had to come home to Willow Park to live with her parents. To recover some sense of independence and security, she’s cobbled together different part-time jobs, including one as assistant to the pastor of her hometown church. Nothing seems to be going right for her. Even Micah, the pastor’s brother and the first boy she ever loved, is standoffish with her now.
Micah has always been a prodigal son, but now he’s trying to put that lifestyle behind him. Then a five-month-old daughter he never knew existed is dropped on his doorstep, the result of one of his many one-night stands. He needs help from Alice to care for his daughter, but he can’t let himself hope for anything more from her than that. He can’t help but want it, though."
"When her father got remarried fourteen years ago, Zach first entered Missy's life. The marriage only lasted a year, but her ex-stepbrother kept hanging around.
Now Zach works with her in her father's landscaping business, and he's sweeter, funnier, and sexier than ever. And Missy can't help but wonder if it's wrong to think about him in a different way. He was only her stepbrother for a year, after all, and now he's acting like he wants to be a lot more."
"For more than two years, Rose has been the nanny for James Harwood's daughters. She adores the girls, but she tries to maintain a professional distance with James—no matter how attractive she finds him. However, when his engagement falls apart and he starts to look at her differently, Rose no longer sees him only as her boss.
James isn't the kind of man to fall for his nanny, so he doesn't know why he can't stop thinking about her in very wrong ways. He's determined to resist, to keep his life simple and to find an appropriate substitute for his wife who died.
But with a manipulative ex-fiancée, two precocious daughters, Rose's interfering Southern grandmother, a short-lived fake engagement, and feelings that won't be denied, nothing remains simple for long."
"Kelly has spent her life taking care of her grandmother and being responsible, but she decides to have a little fun for one weekend in Vegas. She doesn't expect to wake up married to her best friend, Peter--and not remember anything about it.
Peter has been in love with Kelly for a long time, but she's never looked at him as anything but a friend. He's thrilled when she seems to want him for a husband--until he finds out she didn't know what she was doing. Not wanting to let her go, he convinces her to stay married to him for a month and a half to appease their traditional families.
Now he has only forty-five days to prove to her that they should stay married for good."
"Three years ago, Cassandra's marriage fell apart, and she separated from her husband, Silas. She moved away to start a new life, but now she's back home, determined to end the marriage for good. She might still love him, but they can't live together without hurting each other. Divorce is the only option left.
Silas is big, rough, and sexy, and he's never liked to talk. He's been living like a recluse since she left, shutting himself off from the world. He reluctantly agrees to an amicable divorce--if she's willing to spend time with him every day for a week.
She doesn't know he's planning to change her mind by the time the week is over."
"For years, Lydia has dreamed of overseas mission work, the way some women dream of getting married. How ironic that she needs a husband to finally make it happen.
She's always been practical, however—even if it means a marriage-of-convenience so she can finally do the work she’s called to do. Gabe needs a wife at exactly the right time. Plus, he’s kind of hot.
After a spectacularly failed marriage, Gabe isn't looking for a wife. He and his nine-year-old daughter are doing just fine on their own. But he's happy to negotiate a practical arrangement with Lydia in order to move into a new and more rewarding job. After all, a marriage like theirs won't end up changing his life very much.
They both have their priorities, and marriage just isn't one of them. But their carefully planned relationship doesn’t exactly go as planned."
"Brie Graves might be jobless, living with her brother, and recovering from a painful break-up, but she's determined to enjoy the holidays. Until the end of the year, she's going to do anything she wants to do, no matter how crazy it might be. Soon, she discovers exactly what she wants--to spend a week with a fascinating, sophisticated stranger. It doesn't matter that she only knows his first name or that he's more than twenty years older than her. After this one week, she'll never see him again.
Cyrus Damon has spent his life making money and holding himself to impossibly high standards. Pressured into taking a vacation in Savannah, he's alone and at loose ends, so he lets himself do something he never would have considered otherwise. He gives in to his attraction to a beautiful, free-spirited, and much-too-young woman. But, after the week is over, he'll once more be the man he's always been, left with nothing but the memory of a woman who made him happier than he's ever been.
He has no idea that when he visits his nephew in a charming bed and breakfast called Eden Manor, he'll find the woman he thought he'd left for good."
"Abigail has been separated from her husband for almost two years. After a marriage that brought her only insecurity, she seeks a life now of peace and independence with their six-year-old daughter. Thomas wants to put their marriage back together, because he liked the wife he used to have, but she never wants to be that person again.
She might need his help with their daughter and start to enjoy his company again, but she just can't trust him with her heart. Even when she discovers that her heart still wants him for a husband."
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