Always On My Mind by Jill Shalvis

This is Book 9 in this author’s “Lucky Harbor” series. I have enjoyed the previous books in this series and I liked this one as well. Lean Sullivan is back in town after leaving when she was 17. She came back to helping her ailing grandma run her bakery. She’s itching to follow her MO and get out town soon. It’s not necessarily that she really wants to leave, but the dark cloud of Sweet Wars hovers over her. Sweet Wars is the name of the cooking reality show Leah competed in. She doesn’t want to stick around when her family, friends, and everyone else in town sees her fail. For years her lousy father tried to drill it into her that she was only capable of failure. She struggles with those demons of self-doubt every day. Jack Harper, sexy local firefighter and Leah’s longtime friend, is so attuned to her moods that he recognizes something’s wrong. Growing up, when things at home would get too rough, she’d sneak out and hang out with her buddy Jack for comfort. Despite how close they were, they never had a sexual relationship. I thought the author did a good job of using flashbacks to illustrate how special their relationship was when they were younger. Now it seems that fate is intervening – in the form of Jack’s cancer survivor mom. Jack’s mom has been feeling poorly and she tells Leah about how worried she is about Jack with his bad knee and his inability to have a committed romantic relationship. This works on Leah’s emotions so she impulsively tells his mother not to worry because they are a couple. I liked the heat generated by these two. There was a nice balance between the sexiness and the emotion. I was happy with how things worked out in the end. I look forward to reading more books in this series as well as other books by this author.