Showing results by author "Jessie Gussman" in All Categories

I thought it would be a good idea to buy a dog…. I ended up with an ATV I have no idea how to drive. I’m not sure how this happened, especially since the man I purchased it from, Justin Gabriel, introduced himself by running his remote-controlled monster pickup into my high heeled shoe. I’m serious, studious, and a high school English teacher at Good Grief High. Needless to say, Justin Gabriel is not my type.

I’m a city girl and proud of it. Chicago is my hometown and I’m in my element surrounded by people and buildings and busyness. Actually, my business—my vlog—depends on my interactions with people. You can’t go viral talking about your pet turtle. Well, maybe some people can, but that’s not how I became a highly paid influencer. I was happy to use my influence to help my grandmother, Agnes, save her assisted care facility. I thought I was going to hate being out in the wilderness for days on end…bugs and bears and no internet or sushi bars.

People are so serious about life. I feel it was made to be enjoyed. I’m not interested in having a great career or climbing a corporate ladder or being inside much at all, actually. I don’t like to stay with things too long, either. I’ve worked as a short line cook, a firefighter, and a dolphin trainer among other things. So, when the ladies at the Good Grief senior living center offer me a short term job as the photographer for the risqué nature calendar they want to pose for—to cross it off of Miss Agnes’s bucket list—I am all in.

It took me a while—most of my life, in fact—to decide that my hometown of Good Grief, Idaho, is the best place in the world to live. But I have and I love it...except for one thing. My boss. Okay, so the man is good at his job. We just have a tendency to disagree on how much activity the seniors at our assisted-living center want to have.

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.

With her family and life spiraling out of control, Pam Corrigan needs an escape from the stress of her day job and decides to purchase the old inn just south of Strawberry Sands. Her mother will give her half of her inheritance when she remarries, but Pam isn’t the slightest bit interested in another failed relationship. So, she asks her best friend and neighbor, Mark Shields, to fake a relationship with her in the hopes that she can convince her mother to help fund the repairs of the inn she just purchased.

At the annual Christmas barn dance, Eleanor and her best friend Sally devise a mischievous plan to steal Sally's longtime cowboy crush, Peter. They enlist the help of their cousin, who mistakenly kidnaps Peter's brother, Franklin, instead. Determined to keep her intentions secret, Norma Jean convinces Eleanor to embark on a rescue mission. Little does she know that a fierce snowstorm is on its way, trapping her with Peter, a quirky cat, and her adorable litter of four kittens.

Sunday Landry suffers the most painful loss possible - the loss of her son. She closes her candy shop and moves back in with her mother, barely able to get out of bed. What's the point in living? Noah Emery had a crush on Sunday in high school, but she didn't notice him, choosing someone else and eventually having his baby. Now that Noah is back in Strawberry Sands, Sunday again has too much on her mind to notice him, and he can't blame her. He can't imagine losing a child. He wants to help her overcome her grief, so he starts to write to her.

Chi came to Strawberry Sands to escape her past. There were a lot of things to be ashamed of there. Maybe that's why she's so eager to catch the eye of the big-name lawyer who hangs out at her diner. It will prove she's not as worthless as she feels. At a big gala she wasn't supposed to attend, she discovers the lawyer is not only cheating on her but married as well. She might have done more to embarrass herself, but Griff, her coworker, showed up on his bike and whisked her away. She is almost like a heroine in a fairy tale.

What else is a man supposed to do when God clearly shows him his life's calling is no longer healing physical hearts, but spiritual? It would have been easy to tell God no, and to ignore the call back to a tiny town in the Ozarks to begin a ministry in a small church that was about to close its doors. But at 53, Race walked away from his prestigious and successful career and agreed to follow the Lord–under one condition. He told God he wanted a wife to labor alongside of him.

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.

He’d been deformed in a farming accident years ago. He’d managed to build a successful business on his North Dakota ranch, but clients didn’t need to see him. His sister handled the face of his company.

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.

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.