One word that comes to mind when someone talks about me. I like to think of it as protection, watching out for the ones I love. But now I’m spending more time in the penalty box than on the ice and the team owner isn’t happy. Finding myself across the room from the hot therapist I kissed on New Year’s Eve only makes me push my problems down further. I want couch time with her but not the kind she’s used to.

Who’s the mystery woman who's just walked into my brewery? I’m not the only one from my Alaskan small town asking themselves that question. But I’m positive that I’m the only one in Sunrise Bay undressing the pretty blonde in my head. Everything about her, from her make-up to her high heels, says she’s a fish out of water. Whispers and speculations run rampant until the secret of who she is gets uncovered. Then the rumor mill goes into overdrive when she announces she’s staying to open a bookstore in the building next to mine.

If you’re a guy like me, and you find yourself having banged your sexy new boss - the school principal - in the back of your Jeep one drunken night, here’s a few takeaways based on my experience. Lesson One: Always get her full name. Lesson Two: Consider asking what she does for a living. Lesson Three: Find out why she’s moved to town. Get details. Details are crucial....

The last thing my newly single - and pregnant - neighbor Kinley needs is a fling. So, I make it my job to protect her from guys like me. Which is the perfect distraction, because I’m suddenly in a whole bunch of hot water. My coach hates me. And with our team captain now watching my every move, I need to start taking things more seriously. Forced to walk the straight and narrow or face serious consequences, I’m willing to try something new - being a good guy. But the part of this that’s not an act? Helping out Kinley.

As the most hated player in baseball, I had two options: either clean up my image, or pack my bags. Being traded wasn't an option which only meant one thing, I had to become compliant. That's how I found myself sharing a small bistro table with Kate Chapman, the Chicago Bobbies newest PR Manager. Devastatingly beautiful, vastly intelligent, and incredibly cunning, she knows exactly how to handle my grumpy demeanor. It was supposed to be simple. Book some PR events, show up, smile for the camera, and be done. But one massive mistake on my end sends me into the trenches with Kate.

Hockey star Max Yearwood was everything I needed at the time - fun, sexy, up for anything, and only around for a few months, since he’d signed with a new team 3,000 miles away. Max proposed we spend the summer helping me forget my ex. It sounded like a good plan. Things couldn’t get too serious when we had an expiration date. Right? Though, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. 

Secretly hooking up with the team captain's sister was a bad idea. In my defense, the first time I saw her I didn't know who she was. Kind, gorgeous, a little naïve. Ginny brightened my world from day one. I knew I was no good for her. She was just out of a relationship, and I had a reputation for having a new girl in my bed every weekend. I tried to do the right thing. Honest. I'm the one who insisted we should be just friends. That lasted about as long as you'd expect. But Ginny? She's the best - best friend, best everything.

Holly loves her independence and her career. She’s doing just fine on her own, thank you very much. Allowing her head to be turned by a hot hockey player and putting her job at risk? Not. Happening. Ever. Not even if he looks like a god. Not even if he possesses enough charm to tempt the panties from a nun. Not even if she has to cross her fingers behind her back every time she tells him she’s not interested. Policies exist for a reason. Rules are not meant to be broken, and sexy players are not to be trusted. Right? 

What's the probability of insulting the one guy on campus I need to help me pass statistics? If I knew, I wouldn't be standing in front of Wes Reynolds begging him to tutor me. Basketball player, sexy, arrogant, always sleeping through class...these are the things I knew about him. What I didn't know is that he is a seriously smart jock.

Persephone Alexander. Math genius. Lover of blazers. The only girl I know who can make Heidi braids look sexy as hell. And she’s on a mission. Lose her virginity by the end of the semester. I walked in on her interview session for potential candidates (who even does that?) and saw straight through her brave front. She’s got a list of firsts to accomplish, like she’s only got months to live. 

What I meant to do in Vegas: Let my hair down for once and celebrate winning a medal at my first women’s hockey all-stars competition. What I actually did: Got senior prom drunk and woke up married to Brooklyn’s star winger, the great Neil Drake. He’s the heir to a billion dollars, and I barely survived my childhood. Our friendship is based strictly on hockey, takeout food, and smack talk. And now holy matrimony. We both know it can’t last - especially once his evil family gets wind of our Vegas shenanigans.

I didn't mean to star in a sex tape, okay? It was just one of those unexplainable things. Like Stonehenge, Police Academy 2, and morning glory clouds. It just happened. Now, my ball-busting father is sentencing me to six months of celibacy, sobriety, and morbid boredom under the roof of Boston's nerdiest girl alive, Sailor Brennan. The virginal archer is supposed to babysit my ass while I learn to take my place in Royal Pipelines, my family's oil company. Little does she know, that's not the only pipe I'll be laying....

Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant, NFL quarterback Ronan Smith has the world in his hands. But after losing his career and his fiancée in a car accident, he falls into a pit of grief and bad choices. When a mysterious girl shows up to his party, he feels drawn to her and makes her his…for one night. Former beauty queen Nova Morgan is on a mission. Scantily clad as a princess from a galaxy far, far away, she sneaks into a high-profile party to capture the attention of her favorite quarterback. But her hopes crash after an awful one-night stand.

I knew it was a bad idea to get on the elevator. Because now, I have three problems. Number one, I’m stuck in the elevator. Number two, I’m soaking wet from the rain. Number three, he got in before the doors closed. Miles Humphries. My neighbor. The one I hate. The biggest jerk I’ve ever met. Mr. Bachelor-for-Life and I, Rose Taylor, are like night and day. Imagine my jaw dropping when he asks me to be his fake fiancée. And move in with him. Together with my cat. Hello? That’s disaster waiting to happen. But then he makes me an offer I can’t refuse.

Life is going pretty well for Derek LaVigne. He's playing professional hockey in Los Angeles where hockey is barely on the radar, and this allows him to live in relative anonymity. Derek's world is tilted on its axis when he's traded to the Detroit Wheels. Not only is this one of the top teams in the National Hockey League, he'll also be playing in a city that lives and breathes hockey. It sounds like a dream come true, but soon enough it becomes clear it isn't.