Calling it Safe

Friends with benefits—that’s the agreement. No commitments. No complications … but it’s never that simple.

At my wit's end, I planned to spend the winter focusing on my writing, away from the soul-sucking grind that’s become my norm. The last person I expected to step in and save me when things go awry is my brother’s teammate, the intense and sometimes grumpy Dean Harrison. This winter my goals are threefold: find my happy place, elevate my writing, and try not to get my heart broken by an aloof baseball player.

Like the ever-growing snowdrifts outside, the tension between us keeps building. Unable to stand it, I suggest we “make each other feel good,” something, it turns out, we excel at. Dean is as emotionally unavailable as he is hot, making it the perfect fix for our mutual attraction.

Cold, detached, and grumpy. All words that describe me. But even the most resistant fall. One mint brownie shake is all it takes to upend my life. Well, that and finding Mia James, looking defeated, ordering a shake to drown her sorrows. She’s my teammate’s sister—someone I have no right wanting, but has been a constant in my fantasies since we met. Finding her alone and dejected is my downfall.

Weeks later, with her head in the clouds, she waltzes into my cabin and turns everything upside down. Now I’m questioning all the reasons I’ve kept myself closed off for more than a decade. But will the secrets I’ve held onto for so long hold me back? Or will I succeed at shedding my past and going after the one person who makes me believe in a better version of myself? Her.