Calling Your Bluff

Harley White likes control. He has spent years building a life on his own terms, despite…everything. Owning the town’s favorite bar means knowing everyone’s business, keeping the peace, and ensuring that smug, entitled guys like Derek don't step too far out of line. What he doesn’t have time for? Flighty city girls who don’t belong—who breeze in with their big dreams and even bigger attitudes, only to leave just as fast.

Hailey Thompson didn’t move to a small town to live out a Hallmark movie and put down roots. She came for her sister, determined to help her start over, and then she was gone. No distractions, no attachments. Especially not in the form of a slow-burning, infuriating tension with a bartender who—annoyingly—saw right through her carefully built walls. She should be focused on her next escape, not the way Harley’s sharp gaze lingered or how every interaction between them felt like an unspoken challenge she refused to back down from.

They’re opposites in every way. She’s not looking to stay. He’s not looking to let anyone in. But in a town this small, avoiding each other isn’t an option. And when their stubborn standoffs turn into something neither of them saw coming, the lines they’ve drawn begin to blur.

The stakes are higher than either of them are willing to admit. And when push comes to shove, will they be brave enough to call each other’s bluff?