Budding Attraction

HudsonGive me the smallest reason to make a bad decision, and I'll jump in with both feet. Case in point: thinking that drunkenly buying an abandoned town with my brothers is a good idea. As builders, we plan to renovate and flip the town, maybe turn it into something worth seeing, but the longer we're here, the more things feel ... off. It's not until a bearded mountain man breaks into my room in the middle of the night and threatens for us to get out of his town that I realize Wilde's End isn't as abandoned as we were told. But there's nothing waiting for me in the life I left behind, and in making his demands, Wilde has accidentally tapped into my competitive side. Terrible decisions? Me? Wilde can bring it on. WildeI escaped to Wilde's End twenty years ago, and since then I've dedicated my life to the town and the people who live there. Because if I focus on others, I don't have the time or energy to face everything I've been running from. The Bellamy brothers coming to town is like three horsemen of the goddamn apocalypse. They leave destruction in their wake, and when the eldest, Hudson, ignores my very kind request to leave, it's time to take things into my own hands. Protecting this town is all I know how to do. But I've never faced someone like Hudson. His stubbornness matches mine, and his attitude has an irritating way of worming under my skin. The more I push him, the harder he pushes back, until we're locked in a game neither of us will walk away from. With his smart mouth, bullheaded recklessness and those damn eyelashes I'm starting to question whether I can win this one. But if I lose, this town isn't the only thing on the line.

Nach seiner Scheidung will Griffin nur eins: neu anfangen. Sein Sohn ist aus dem Haus, das Verhältnis zur Ex entspannt - aber mit Mitte vierzig wieder Single zu sein, ist schwieriger als gedacht. Zum Glück hat er Heath, seinen besten Freund, der ihn ins Datingleben zurückkatapultieren will. Alles läuft nach Plan - bis eine einzige Nacht alles verändert.Was als harmlose Hilfe unter Freunden beginnt, wirft plötzlich Fragen auf, denen sich keiner von beiden stellen will. Je mehr Zeit sie zusammen verbringen, desto schwerer wird es, die Finger voneinander zu lassen. Beide behaupten, keine Beziehung zu wollen - doch es geht längst um mehr als nur ein bisschen Spaß.Was, wenn der Mensch, den man immer nur als besten Freund gesehen hat, plötzlich derjenige ist, auf den man schon sein ganzes Leben lang gewartet hat?

Felix Andrews genießt das Collegeleben in vollen Zügen, aber nun fühlt er sich bereit für eine feste Beziehung. Daher bittet er seine Freunde, ihn bei der Partnersuche zu unterstützen. Gesagt, getan - sie schicken Felix zu einem Blind Date mit dem liebenswerten Marshall. Nur läuft nichts wie geplant, und am Ende ist Felix eins völlig klar: Marshall möchte er am liebsten nie wiedersehen. Doch der folgende Morgen hält eine Überraschung für ihn bereit. Marshall Harrows weiß schon nach dem ersten Date: Felix Andrews ist sein Traummann. Leider steht seine Schwärmerei unter keinem guten Stern. Aber das Schicksal und ihre gemeinsamen Freunde führen Felix und Marshall immer wieder zusammen ...

Nach seiner Scheidung steht Payne vor einem Scherbenhaufen: mit vierzig zurück in seiner Heimatstadt, pleite und ohne eigene Wohnung. Als sein Bruder ihm ausgerechnet seinen besten Freund als neuen Mitbewohner vorschlägt, bleibt Payne nichts anderes übrig, als seinen Stolz herunterzuschlucken und das Angebot anzunehmen. Ein wenig Aufräumen hier, ein bisschen Kochen dort, und schon hat er ein Dach über dem Kopf. Klingt einfach. Wäre da nicht Beau - Beau, der gerne halb nackt herumläuft. Beau, der die Tür nicht schließt, wenn er ... beschäftigt ist. Und Beau, der ihn von Anfang an viel zu sehr ablenkt.Beau hingegen hat seine eigenen Gründe, Payne aufzunehmen. Seit sein Job ihn vollkommen vereinnahmt, ist sein Leben ein einziges Chaos - Dates eingeschlossen. Also schlägt er Payne einen Deal vor: Unterkunft gegen eine Generalüberholung seines Liebeslebens. Payne soll ihm helfen, Date-tauglich zu werden, damit er endlich jemanden findet, der ihn so liebt, wie er ist.Dumm nur, dass der Einzige, den Beau jemals wirklich wollte, jetzt in seinem Gästezimmer wohnt ...

TAITen years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life.When Hawke left for the NHL and my hockey dreams went up in smoke, I ghosted my best and longest friend. It made sense at the time, but there hasn't been a day where I haven't missed him.So when we run into each other again, and his only response is "Do I know you?", I know I deserve it. But I refuse to let one mistake keep us apart forever. Especially when he has bigger problems, and I'm in a position to help him.JENSENAll I wanted this offseason was to spend my time relaxing-not getting an emergency phone call from Mom to come home. My hometown is full of too many memories of me and Tai so I avoid returning there as much as I can.But now I have one more memory to add to the list: my high school girlfriend.And the kid we apparently had together.Kasen hates me and thinks I abandoned them, and my only way to get to him is through his coach. My ex-best friend. The friend that has been impossible to forget. No matter how much I've tried.

XanderThere's something seriously wrong with me.For once, I'm not talking about the health anxiety that randomly pops up and wreaks havoc on my life. I'm talking about, well, everything else.All my roommates have found someone to love them, and it hurts to see the guys who used to have me at the center of their worlds pair off and grow up, especially when it's a reminder of how alone I've always been. I've always had an issue with relationships. With forming a connection with people outside of Seven, but this is more.Because I want to find my someone.Except the one person my brain has latched onto is the one person I can never have. The one person who's there to help me when my panic attacks get too much.Nurse Derek.DerekI should never have offered to treat Xander Moore.And now here I am years later, my life on hold, while I wait day in and day out for the call that Xander needs me. It always comes, and I always answer, but I'm starting to dread those visits.Lately, I'm looking at Xander in a way a medical professional should never look at their patient.When Xander starts volunteering at the same nursing home that I do, I get to see a new side of him. The artistic, charismatic side that draws the residents in. I get glimpses of a man who's so much more than his anxiety, and it does nothing to help my feelings for him.Lines begin to blur and I have no choice but to stop treating him. That at least allows us to be friends. The only problem is, being friends isn't enough for either of us.It's wrong, unethical, and unprofessional, but my heart won't listen. It's decided on Xander, and it doesn't want to wait. Neither does Xander.But if I want to keep my job, I have to resist.I just wish he didn't make that so difficult.

FordI've never thought much about Orson Naples. He's a cute guy who I'd seen around town a few times, but then one day he up and left and didn't reappear until a few years later. No one knows where he went or what he was doing, all this gossipy town knows is that he's a widower, owns the florist, and is friends with that divorced group that hang out at the Killer Brew all the time. But then one day I step into his flower shop and go from rarely thinking about him, to him constantly being on my mind. There's a restlessness to him that I'm dying to unlock answers to. And his eyes linger on me a little too long for a straight man ...OrsonFord Thomas is a pest. A delightful one. A tempting one. But I'm too old for games. The ones I've played in the past have always led me to trouble which is why I vowed to settle down and live a quiet life. So when Ford walks into my shop all uncontained energy and flirty quips in a pair of heavy work boots, I know I should show him the door. I don't need fun. I don't need experiences.Especially when those experiences have me questioning things I thought I knew about myself.

ArtWhen it comes to regrets, I have none. My life is perfect. I own a bar, work hard, party harder, and smother my niblings in all the love they deserve. I don't need to settle down, as much as my sister might want me to.But then Joey Manning walks into my office and leaves me all but begging to give him a job ... and wanting to give him so much more.The self-professed straight man is in my head and while I know that I need to move on from him, my body isn't getting that message. It doesn't help that Joey is a grade A flirt who can banter with the best of them. I've never had regrets. Not until Joey Manning.JoeyThe bills keep piling up and the pressure to get my sisters through college before we're evicted is always on the back of my mind. Whoever said life was for living, clearly forgot that living's expensive.My default mode is stressed AF and working myself to the bone, and there's only one person who gives me a break from all that.Art de Almeida.My boss.The one man I shouldn't flirt with, but I can't seem to stop. I want to get under his skin. To leave him panting for me. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing except that he thinks I'm straight, and I've never bothered to correct him.I need this job.But some days I worry that I need Art more.<BR>Employing Patience is a low angst, small town, employer/employee romance. It has a ridiculous found family, prince charming costumes and the king of anti-commitment falling hard.