A collection of three full-length contemporary romance novelsWhere There's SmokeLauren Stokes put a lid on her attraction toward her best friend Seth Escamilla years ago. She'd never be his type of woman, so why torture herself? When sexual awareness strikes during a friendly football game, she's stunned. He's guilty for injuring her and looks after her, but Lauren resorts to wisecracking to distance herself from him. Seth's confused by the new emotions swamping him. This is Lauren, his best friend, someone he has fun with, not someone he has fun with! He doesn't plan to settle down, and he won't risk their friendship when they have no future. They resist the new attraction, and the efforts of their families to push them together. When a wedding loosens their inhibitions, keeping the new aspect of their relationship a secret is harder than they would have thought.Something to Talk AboutWhen you're trying to stay below the radar in a small town that thrives on gossip, you probably don't want to break up with your football coach boyfriend and fall in love with your best friend's widower within the same month. And heaven help you if you befriend the psychic who's just moved nearby and your AWOL mother returns after a fourteen-year absence.Ellie Morgan is tired of playing second string to the football team coached by her boyfriend of three years. She ends their relationship, much to the dismay of the town's citizens, who worry a heartbroken coach will ruin their chance for a championship team. Rumors of a romance with Noah Weston, her best friend's widower, buzz when an accident on the beach causes him to bring her to the local clinic in his arms. The rumors disturb her, but also make her think about Noah in a way she hasn't before. Even comments that she's trying to slide into the void left by her best friend's death can't kill her fantasies, now as rampant as the rumor mill.Noah Weston is emerging from his grief a year and a half after his wife's death. Ellie Morgan draws him with her energy and positive attitude. As their friendship progresses, though, he wonders if he can risk loving and losing everything again, and she wonders if she can handle taking second place, this time to a ghost.What (Not) to Expect When You're ExpectingBailey Summers is very good at taking care of herself. So good, in fact, that she shuts others out with very little effort.But when her brother and his partner want a child, she pushes out of her comfort zone and offers to be their surrogate. It's just nine months out of her life, right?Right.Because of course when she's struggling with morning sickness, she encounters the hottest man she's ever met. To make matters worse, he's the new bartender at her popular bar.Rick Cassidy comes with his own complications. He's a middle school teacher taking a summer job as a bartender to help out his brother's family. His brother is in a rehab hospital after colliding with a drunk driver, and Rick is trying to help them make ends meet. He's just out of a relationship himself, with a woman who couldn't handle him spending so much time caring for his brother. So what's he doing eyeballing his boss, the boss of a job he needs?But late nights, close quarters and second-trimester hormones overrule better judgement, and complications intertwine. This is definitely not what they were expecting. MJ Fredrick knows about chasing dreams. Twelve years after she completed her first novel, she signed her first publishing contract. Now she divides her days between teaching 4th grade students how to write and diving into her own writing, traveling everywhere in her mind, from Belize to Honduras to Africa to the past.
