Hermosa Beach seems to be the place for throwing together unlikely opposites. My rooster Rowdy and his new crush, Pixy the goat. Me and the obnoxiously cocky cowboy from Texas.... But unlike Rowdy and Pixy, there’s no way I’m going to fall for David Strickland. Nope. Not gonna happen. I could never be with a man so completely opposed to everything I believe...no matter how hot he is.

She was my best friend's little sister, which meant she was off limits, but I couldn’t help myself. I never could when it came to her, and in the end, I left town and made something of my myself. Ten years later and I'm one of the richest men in the world. I have everything I ever wanted...except for her.

We were friends, she and I. Best friends. It was easy, simple, and comfortable; that was our dynamic. We had a system, an understanding, an unspoken arrangement. We were there for each other through thick and thin. We had an unbreakable bond. Nobody understood our friendship. Because a guy and a girl couldn’t just be best friends without emotions getting involved, right? Without noticing, everything shifted, and I was experiencing all these new feelings....

He was my older brother's best friend. He was never supposed to be mine. I thought we would get it out of our systems and move on. One of us did. One of us left. Now he's back, looking at me like he wants to devour me. And all those feelings I'd turned into anger are brewing into something else, something that terrifies me. He broke my heart last time. This time he'll obliterate it.

The last thing I thought I'd be doing my last semester was following my ex-boyfriend around, but here I am. I was assigned to write an article about college athletes and he's the biggest one in our town. With this assignment comes a new living arrangement that sets me up in an apartment right next to his.