“Love ’em and leave ’em” has been real estate agent Karen Bently’s motto for as long as she can remember. She doesn’t need a man, except to make her toes curl. Or so she thought, until her longtime crush, Ace pitcher Jerry Smutton, sets his sights on her.
After signing one of the largest baseball contracts in history with the Detroit Rockets, Jerry enlists Karen to help him find the house of his dreams. Their connection is instant and electric, but neither of them is the relationship type. When Jerry proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, that suits Karen just fine.
Passionate sleepovers soon turn into long, romantic evenings… Still, Karen and Jerry refuse to acknowledge they’re a couple. Karen insists that she’s immune to Jerry’s heart-melting charm. Jerry’s not ready to settle down. Denial is the name of the game, until one pitch changes everything…
It had crossed Karen's mind, now that her best friend was marrying a Rocket player, she might finally meet Jerry Smutton. Karen is a huge baseball fan and she has a little crush on him, though she would never admit this to Jerry.
Finally luck is on her side, Jerry signed on of the biggest contracts in baseball history. Which means he finally needs a real house instead of the condo he's been renting. Who better to help him than Karen, the best friend of the fiancé of his teammate. Upon meeting they immediately feel that physical attraction and since both aren't looking to settle down anytime soon, this is the perfect opportunity to have a little fun. Jerry can barely commit to house let alone a woman.
Karen is kind of the same, she doesn't do relationships, though her reasons are different. She has been hurt very badly once and since then she doesn't believe HEA exists for her. So this friends with benefits situation with Jerry suits her just fine. Except Jerry confuses her. He breaks the rules, no emotions involved, but he keeps asking about her past, her dreams and he does all these sweet things. Still he keeps claiming he doesn't want a relationship, which confuses Karen.
Actions speak louder than words and it seems Jerry is mostly contradicting himself. Thus the drama begins. Karen tries to keep him at a safe distance, but each time Jerry just knocks down her walls. Meanwhile Jerry doesn't really know what he wants and just focuses on baseball, 'cause at least that is safe.
Karen and Jerry are amazing characters and their story was a hoot to read. The things that come out of Karen's mouth had me cracking up on multiple occasions. She tells it as she sees it and that definitely keeps things interesting. Her hang up on her bad relationship experience did get a bit tiresome after a while, luckily she too knew it was stupid, she just couldn't help it.
Jerry was of course very dreamy. Physically he's near perfection and the more steamy scenes were very fun to read. I loved how he kept Karen on the tip of her toes. Each thing he said would get an interesting reaction and left Karen wonder who he really was. So much fun to figure this out.
Another wonderful novel by Rhonda Shaw. Two very strong novels, with plenty of humor. She is going on my must read list!
Men Of The Show - Reading order and purchase links
All books can be read as standalone novels
The Author
Born in California, but transplanted to the Midwest, Rhonda is warm weather girl to the bone (even years later, winter and her are not on speaking terms) and loves nothing more than a balmy, summer evening. She and her husband are diehard fans of pretty much all sports, but especially for their hometown Detroit teams. Rhonda received a bachelor's in Human Resources Development and continued onto a master's in Marriage and Family Counseling before making a drastic career switch into computer technology. She started out as a website developer and made her way up into management where she now spends most of her days in meetings. Rhonda was a life-long dancer before her body told her she needed to come down off her toes and wrap it up. She also loves all animals--especially moose. She is a proud member of Romance Writers of America.
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