I’ve always been a wild card–the first to start a fight on the ice, and the life of the party off it–but appearances can be deceiving. Being traded to the Boston Rebels could not have come at a better time. With serious family obligations to fulfill and a contract renewal with a new hockey team on the line, I have no time for anything else. I return to Boston knowing I need to buckle down and focus on what really matters.

Lola Penelope Caruso is my favorite person to torment. When she’s had enough of me, her freckled cheeks go rosy, her tiny hands ball into fists, and she pulls at her signature tight braid and lets down her long red hair. I thought I'd seen her at her worst when we told her she’d have to move from New York City to a dump in Jersey with our law firm. But then a six-year-old showed up at my office with a note around his neck and my smile on his face, and she had to ask: Who's your daddy?

He wants me to stay out of his way. I want to get under his skin. One look at single dad Callum Blackwood, and I know I messed up. I never meant to save a farm—or steal it from under the grumpy innkeeper who had already claimed it as his future. Now I’m the woman who swooped in on a whim and left him seething. Trouble is, I have no idea what I’m doing. Every smirk, every biting comment, is a reminder that he’s waiting for me to fail. But I don’t back down from a fight—even when the fight comes with a jawline that should be illegal and a scowl that sets my pulse racing.

Cecilia "CeCe" Ashby is finally escaping the toxic relationship that has consumed her entire adult life. She's returning to her hometown of Laurel Creek, Kentucky, and her family's equestrian ranch, unsure of what the future holds. Nash Carter, the newly retired superstar of the Dallas Stars, is Laurel Creek's hometown hero, local business owner, and notorious bachelor. He's also the unofficial fourth sibling in the Ashby clan. It's been years since his days of tormenting CeCe with her older brothers Wade and Cole. So, when CeCe needs a job, he feels drawn to help her.

Yes, I’m a single dad who needs a nanny for the summer. But hiring the stranded runaway bride who shows up on my doorstep in a wedding gown with no references, no skills, and no experience? No one is that desperate.