Showing results by author "Jessie Gussman" in All Categories

Madeline Reese has a successful cooking show, a best-selling line of cookbooks and is considered one of the top celebrity chefs in Hollywood. One small problem – she can’t cook. Loyal Hudson doesn’t want to open his world-class kitchen to the cameras Madeline will bring with her, but the celebrity chef could be the bridge between him and a future with his little girl.

Waverley Madris is two months behind on her rent and about to lose her house and her children. Getting stuck with handsome Zane Hudson and his four kids in the Diner bathroom seems like just the type of thing that was just her luck. Except she emerges from that bathroom an engaged woman.

On the day Deacon Hudson was set to be ordained, a bundle shows up at the church with a simple note on it. Deacon Hudson is the father. Take care of her. Deacon knows he’s not the father. The Immaculate Conception was a one time thing. But the baby needs a parent, and he has to decide if he will give up his life dream of being a pastor to take the child, despite the fact that the note is a lie. Can he do it without resenting the child?

Ivory Haines is the daughter of the town’s resident retired prostitute and possibly the town drunk, although her mother wasn’t entirely certain. She resents her position in the town – and especially resents the teasing she’d been subjected to – and has vowed to show everyone that she is just as good as they are. She can hardly believe her luck when Chandler Hudson donates a month of his time to the highest bidder at the charity auction to benefit local victims of the recent tornado damage.

After her husband walks out, leaving her with three small children, Shelby isn't interested in romance. She just wants her roof to not leak and the furnace to work. Keene Emmerson is ready to settle down, but he's not expecting to find love in a single wide trailer amidst the chaos of kids and construction and a pair of September sky blue eyes.

Originally diagnosed with Lyme disease, Esther MacCartney is frustrated because she’s been bedridden for months and doctors can’t tell her if she’ll ever be well again. The only person who’s visited her regularly is her sister’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Monroe. He makes her laugh and treats her like he enjoys her company. But her sister has a job offer off the farm, and Esther is afraid Monroe will propose to get her to stay.

Cormac Henderson is shocked when he discovered his friend from college has willed him half-interest in a high-dollar roping horse...and his daughter. But then he finds out that the woman who has hated him since high school is the person he's supposed to be sharing custody of both with.

When Teagan Lepley is asked to cat-sit by a kindly lady in town, she wasn't expecting the neighbor to be so "friendly", so she asks her best friend to hang out with her so she can honestly say she's busy. What she wasn't expecting was the entire town to think that there is finally something more going on between her and her best friend. Something more than the great friendship they've always had.

Preston Harding witnessed his best friend’s death in the prime of his life. Alcohol has numbed the pain. Until his son’s mother drops the boy off on his doorstep and tells him she is dying. Suddenly he’s responsible for a young life and is facing another death. Thankfully, hospice is taking care of everything except the child.

Since her husband's infidelity and their subsequent divorce, Kennedy just wants to be left alone to figure things out. North Dakota seems like the perfect place. Only, because of one little kidnapping and ransom incident, her older brother thinks she needs a bodyguard. She supposes he's probably right, but she'd really like it to be anyone other than Baker Lawrence. He's been her brother's best friend forever and her very first crush. There is no man more solid and dependable than Baker.

She led him on, lied about him, then dumped him for his cousin. She was his enemy. He walked. But he loved her still.

Roxane Peterson is up for auction. Well, her and her ranch. She knew it would be too much to hope for that the man who bought her would be more interested in her than in the property and money that came with her. But she’s been down this road before–a marriage that isn’t perfect. Her only concern now is protecting her son and making sure she keeps her independence.

He’s the billionaire heir of Sweet Water Ranch. His family is throwing a ball, and he must choose a wife. She’s too poor to attend the ball as a guest. But she can go as the hired help. One magical dance and a case of mistaken identity later, and nothing is as it seems.

She’s his best friend’s little sister. He’s never noticed her. Not like that. He needs to marry to inherit his money, so he’s hired a woman to be his fake bride. Only he’s too sick to get married.

Merrit and Sorrel Hines have been trying to find a husband for their mom because they want a dad. Their mom says to be patient, but at the rate she's going–always more concerned with what is happening at her diner than in looking for a husband–they'll be grown and out of the house until she gets around to finding someone.

Jonah Mills is content keeping a low profile on the Sweet Briar Ranch, drumming up business for their crop-dusting service and learning how to be a rancher after years in the Air Force. His marriage was a mistake he doesn't intend to repeat.

Mav Stryker can't seem to convince the town of Sweet Water that he's not the kid he used to be. Of course, taking a gamble on high dollar cattle that didn't pay off isn't helping anything. Especially when it causes him to face foreclosure. Except, there is an inheritance, but he needs to act by midnight.

After her husband died, leaving her with six kids to raise on her own, Piper Hughes struggles to hold everything together on a hairdresser's small wage. She has no hope of expanding her two bedroom ranch house, and doesn't want to rely on the charity of the town either. She definitely doesn't want some strange man coming in, being too kind, stealing her kids' hearts, and turning her world upside down. He'll be leaving when he's done. After all, what man would want a woman with six kids?

Natalie Moody’s house has been condemned and she has two weeks left to move out. When a friend at church offers to let her stay at his brother’s farmhouse while he’s out on assignment for two months, she jumps at the chance. Denver Barclay bought a farm, but he can’t seem to get himself to want to settle down. Didn’t help that the girl he dreamed about kissing married his brother.

Blakley Barclay knows her parents are up to something. They’ve been matching all her siblings and even some other people in her hometown of Mistletoe. But the man they want to pair her up with? A huge pro ball player with more muscles than brains, and she is not interested. So she turns to her best friend for help.