Riley Beckett met Gianna Mäkinen-drop-dead gorgeous influencer, trilingual, daughter of world-famous models, yes, that Gianna Mäkinen-their first year at Boston University, and it changed everything for the both of them. After all, when you find the person who just gets you, nothing feels quite "the same" right?

Sarah Brennan is a hockey player in the new professional women's league, but it's her mind she wants to exercise when she enrolls in a university class on Irish literature. Professor Claire Joyce is no fan of pro athletes, especially after a failed marriage to one. Unfortunately her ten-year-old daughter adores hockey, and her idol happens to be none other than Sarah Brennan. Falling in love with someone who barely tolerates sports and athletes finally forces Sarah, at thirty-six, to admit that her career is in overtime, and to consider what life might look like after hockey.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes.

Devon Douglas can’t believe it when she comes face-to-face with Sadie again. They were inseparable in high school until Devon did something she ruined their friendship on a lovestruck whim. Sadie is as dazzling as Devon remembers—and she can still hold her own surfing the wild waves of Clearwater Bay. Devon’s first priority is her five-year-old son, but getting to know Sadie all over again is taking up more and more of her headspace. Sadie is inexplicably drawn to Devon. It could be nostalgia. Or remnants of their old friendship flaring. But what if it’s more than that?

Good things come to those who wait and now Sutton Spencer and Charlotte Thompson get to reap the benefits. They spent months circling around admitting their feelings, but the time for denying their love is over.