Meet the Mercers

Adrian Mercer is our new CEO. I’m the woman least convinced he deserves the job—and the one he needs beside him for six weeks in Tuscany.

I can manage a business trip. Sharing a villa with him requires considerably more patience.

Especially when he starts making me laugh. When he lets my grandmother teach him to make pasta. When our late-night conversations end and neither of us gets up to leave.

I know what to do with the Adrian who argues with me.
The one who wants me is another matter.

Then Mr. Mercer kisses me, and the future I imagined with his brother stops being the one I want.

But Adrian knows who came first. And for all his confidence, he’s still waiting for me to wish he were someone else.

I thought wanting a man who didn’t want me was painful.
Being wanted by one who doesn’t believe me might be worse.

Tessa Hart is back to restore her hometown cinema—and see whether she’s finally over Sebastian Mercer. One look at her childhood best friend settles that question.

This time, she sets the terms: they can share a bed, but not a future. When the work is finished, she’s going back to Los Angeles.

Seb has never stopped wanting her. He agrees to temporary because asking for more means risking the second chance he never thought he’d get.

But breaking her rules could lose her.
Following them means watching her leave again.

One furious interview. One remark she couldn’t take back. Six years of avoiding the director who knew exactly how to make her writing better—and her judgment worse.

Now their little film is becoming a feature, and the opportunity of Jules’s career means working with the man she’s supposed to be over.

She can handle arguing over dialogue. It’s the late nights when they stop arguing that worry her.

Elliot remembers what trusting Jules cost him. But working with her reminds him how much he misses her. And somewhere between rewriting scenes and finding excuses to stay, keeping his distance stops being what he wants.

Last time, she wanted him and he didn’t trust her with his heart.

This time, he might.
And she knows exactly what she could lose.

Six years ago, he left her for professional soccer. Now she’s a widow raising a four-year-old, and her first love is back in town—with an injured body, an ended career, and the nerve to want another chance.

Romy agrees to dinner.
Once.

But he still knows how to make her laugh. She still remembers his hands. And her son is starting to ask when he’s coming over.

Against her better judgment, Romy is starting to look forward to the answer.

Then an offer from Seattle gives Ollie a reason to leave—and a future he thought he’d lost.

This time, she won’t be the only one waiting for him to come home.

Miri Mercer knows Nathan Ward wants her.
She’s tired of watching him talk himself out of it.

Six years of emails made him her friend. Working together is making friendship impossible.

He knew her father. He knows her family. Miri knows exactly how many excuses that gives him.

Then he kisses her, and she gets to discover what he’s like when he stops being sensible.

She could fall in love with that man.

If he’s willing to be the same man in front of her family.