Meeting Bolan Adler, professional baseball catcher and single dad, is a complicated story.
One involving a one-time kiss when I was young and silly. And a two-time tryst as some kind of midlife breakdown moment.
Anyway, in the game of baseball, three strikes mean: you’re out.
I thought my third one might happen when Bolan Adler is the newest client of the sports management agency I work for.
The same business that just promoted me to agent status when I haven’t asked for the position.
Also, the ridiculous company that wrote up a reputation repair report for the newest member of the Chicago Anchors which includes:
Bolan Adler needs a wife.
He’s decided I’m it. Only this isn’t a game of tag.
Hearts are on the line when I meet Bolan’s sweet sixteen-month-old, and my role goes from babysitting the bad boy of baseball to bonus-mom for his precious daughter.
Complicated, like I said.
Add in when my fake husband starts tossing out real emotions about love, marriage, and another baby, and I’m just hoping to stay out of the strike zone. Because the obvious opponent on the field is love.
Will it win or lose at the end of the season?
I love a good marriage of convenience, and this book was perfect. It’s kind of a business arrangement, but with a twist and I loved everything about it. Ruthie is a young widow who shared a life-changing kiss with a stranger long ago. She thinks back on it fondly from time to time, but it’s just a memory . . . until he approaches her in a hotel ballroom and sparks fly. Ruthie didn’t wake up expecting to marry anyone today, but the prospect of marrying this almost complete stranger is actually pretty exciting. She’s been stuck in a rut mourning her husband for hurting and disappointing her but keeping that pain to herself.
She’s tired of secrets and though she adores her in-laws and is extremely grateful for the job, she doesn’t want to be a sports agent. Marrying Bolan will take her halfway across the country for the next year, giving her some distance and breathing room from her only real family. It’s a fresh start, a blank slate, a chance to reinvent herself and it’s exactly what she needs. She didn’t expect to fall in love with the baby girl in her care or the power she feels watching Bolan get possessive.
I enjoyed these characters a lot, especially Bolan. He was tough but vulnerable and I loved the way he let her see his weaknesses. Ruthie was too much of a people pleaser at first but soon starts putting herself first and then the sky is the limit. This is my first book from the Chicago Anchors series, but it won’t be my last. I’d like to thank the author and The Author Agency for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
