Carter's Cove Beach Romance Series

He needs a reason not to go out with a journalist. She'd like a guaranteed date for the summer. They don't get along, so keeping Brad in the not-her-real-fiancé category should be easy for Celeste. Totally easy.

She's the pastry chef for the on-site restaurant, lonely, and not happy when her ex-boyfriend comes into town looking to buy the land where the inn sits. Alissa Heartwood captains a fishing boat and is the pastry chef for her family-owned and operated empire on an island off the coast of South Carolina. With summer looming, she feels destined to be on the fishing boat before dawn and chained to the kitchen in order to get the pastries out for all the customers coming to the island.

Olympia Heartwood is running the family empire, and she works long days and lives at The Heartwood Inn, making her entire life about her job. Which is just fine with her, because the last man she was involved with was married. When the truth came out, her heart shattered, and she's never been the same. And men? She can't trust them. Doesn't need them. Chet Christopher took the heat for something that wasn't his fault, lost his prestigious job at the country's largest luxury hotel chain, and has been living in his car for a few weeks.

Sheryl Heartwood loves everything to do with plants, flowers, and trees. She tends to the grounds around The Heartwood Inn, and she's content with the beach-side life she's always known. But she's not very happy about the ex-boyfriend who keeps showing up on her front step, following her around the expansive grounds at the inn, and scaring her. So she hires Gage Sanders to be her "boyfriend" to keep the other man away. The lines become blurred on the very first day, when she kisses him, which is so unlike Sheryl.

Bradley Keith is a Carter's Cove native, despite his professional football career. He's not interested in dating a journalist on his hometown island, and to get her to back off, he tells her he's engaged. The only problem? He's not. Doesn't even have a girlfriend. When the journalist shows up at The Heartwood Inn, where Brad is installing a new VIP swimming pool, demanding to know who his fiancée is, he names the first woman he literally sees walk by—Celeste Heartwood. Will Celeste put her reputation—and her heart—on the line for the football star?

Gwen Heartwood has a love-hate relationship with nearly everything in her life. She likes managing the dining services at the family owned and operated Heartwood Inn...unless she's dealing with angry customers, crushing deadlines, and not enough kitchen staff.