Flirting with Mr. Serious — Suzanne Baltsar

Summer flings are supposed to be easy, right?Samantha Kohler is home for a few weeks before she moves to Texas to finish her PhD. Between readying her childhood home for sale, helping her father recover from surgery, and celebrating her best friend's wedding, Sam's got a busy summer, and after her parents' fraught divorce, the last thing she needs or wants is a relationship, especially with the boy she had a crush on as a kid. But a casual fling, that she can do.A life-changing injury leaves thirty-year-old Marine veteran, Mike Ewing, living in his parents' basement. Grappling with past trauma and a new direction for his life, he doesn't have time or inclination for games. Until Sam Kohler shows up. The last time he's seen his little brother's best friend was before he'd left for boot camp when she still had pigtails and braces. Now she's all grown up and has an offer that he can't refuse. Twelve weeks of fun and flirting? Yes.Even though Sam is supposed to be the expert when it comes to emotionless hook-ups, she can't stop her growing attachment to the man who shows her what protection and support look like, while Mike is forced to come to terms with his insecurities in order to take advantage of this new lease on life. But it's not love. It couldn't be. Because love is serious business, and what's happening between them is strictly temporary.A no-strings attached summer, that's all this was supposed to be. Yet what they find together just might be the start of something real.