Patricia A Dodds

Once upon a time I spent an evening flirting with a handsome stranger in a bar. But before we could finish what we started, I lost my nerve and fled. Months later, I’m minding my own business at work one morning when a stranger lets himself into the empty brewery. Panicked, I call 911, and the cops show up to slap on the handcuffs. In my defense, I have very good reasons to be afraid. Also in my defense, I’d never met my boss’s son.

The furniture district is my personal hell. I don’t know my ass from an ottoman. But when a hot designer comes to my rescue, I realize my problems are bigger than the house I’m trying to furnish.

Faith Benson isn’t your emergency contact, she’s the party-girl friend you call for a good time. She's the gal-pal who loves mimosas at brunch and martinis at Happy Hour. But her carefree lifestyle threatens her job at a top Seattle ad agency; there’s no one better at landing big accounts (when she shows up). But now her boss demands she take a leave of absence to get her head on straight.

Would you live a lie to hold onto the one you love? Dean and Jason are best friends, like brothers since boyhood, now architecture students and college roommates. They've always had each other's back, but when one walks in on the other with another man, everything changes. How do you explain to your best friend that he's the one you've always wanted, that until now your life has been a lie?

Fire captain and bar owner Becker Thomas usually spends his nights alone, trying to escape painful memories from his past. When he meets a sexy, free-spirited brunette outside his bar, he knows he's found the perfect way to forget for one night. But when he discovers the woman he wants back in his bed is his best friend's sister, everything comes to a halt.

In my defense, I was left alone with a bottle of single-malt and a lifelong penchant for protecting my baby sister. Still, that's no excuse to send 10 drunk-texts on why her hasty marriage would be a mistake. If only I had just texted my sister. But nope. I accidentally sent the message to her, her groom, and his super hot wingman. I also used the phrase “super hot wingman”, so I’d like to die now.

No last names. No life stories. Those were the rules. Once upon a time a cocky, copper-haired tourist sauntered into Zara's bar. And even though she knew better, Zara indulged in a cure for the small-town blues. It was supposed to be an uncomplicated fling - a few sizzling weeks before he went back to his life, and she moved on. Until an accidental pregnancy changed her life. Two years later, she's made peace with the notion that Dave No-Last-Name will never be found - until one summer day when he walks into her coffee shop.

Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wisecracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were 18? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

Reeling from her loss, Kacey Dawson is grieving and heartbroken, her addictive demons hauling her back into the alcohol-soaked abyss she worked so hard to crawl out of. Kacey teeters on the edge of oblivion, and must fight her way through the pain, to build a new life for herself with her music, and somehow fulfill the promise she made to Jonah...one she feels is impossible to keep.