Off Balance

There are some characters who fall in love easily. Macy Lockwood and Sawyer Reed are not those characters. And honestly, that might be my favorite thing about them.

Off Balance, the first book in my Summit Ridge series, takes place at Summit Ridge Leadership Retreat, tucked into the mountains of West Texas—a place filled with climbing walls, ropes courses, impossible corporate team-building exercises, unpredictable weather, and a staff that notices absolutely everything.

It is also, unfortunately for Macy and Sawyer, their workplace.

When Sawyer arrives, he has one goal: keep his head down, do his job well, and avoid becoming anyone’s problem. Macy notices him almost immediately. Not in a romantic way. More in a why is this irritatingly calm man questioning my decisions on his first day? kind of way.

Six months later, they’ve perfected the art of working together while driving each other completely insane. Macy is loud, sharp, fearless, and usually three steps ahead of the chaos. Sawyer is quiet, methodical, dryly funny, and almost impossible to rattle.

Almost.

Then their boss makes a decision neither of them wants: they’re going to co-lead Summit Ridge’s biggest new program. Together. For ten weeks.

What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually.

But Off Balance isn’t just an enemies-to-lovers romance where two attractive people argue until they finally give in to the chemistry. Macy and Sawyer challenge each other because the work matters to them. They disagree about safety, leadership, and what it actually means to give another person a choice.

Sometimes Macy is right. Sometimes Sawyer is right. Sometimes they are both spectacularly annoying.

Somewhere between arguments over ropes courses, terrible archery, badly behaved onions, and more unresolved sexual tension than two coworkers should be allowed to accumulate, something begins to change. They stop seeing the loud woman everyone assumes Macy is, and the quiet man Sawyer has spent years making himself into. They see the people underneath.

I wanted their intimacy to matter just as much outside the bedroom—though make no mistake, this is the spicy version, and when they finally stop pretending they don’t want each other, the door stays wide open. Their relationship is built in tiny, breathless moments: a cup of coffee remembered correctly, an apology that actually changes something, a hand that almost touches. It’s two people learning that loving someone doesn’t mean disappearing for them, but making room.

There is plenty of heat here, but also a lot of laughter. The rest of the Summit Ridge staff certainly doesn't make things easier with their endless, unsolicited opinions. In this slightly chaotic little world, corporate executives come to learn about teamwork while their instructors occasionally make a much bigger mess of their own lives.

It’s a place where competence is extremely attractive, and where two people who seem completely wrong for each other discover that the very things throwing them off balance are exactly what they needed all along.

If you love workplace romance, forced proximity, sharp banter, slow-building tension, capable characters, and plenty of on-page spice, come spend some time at the retreat.

Off Balance, Book One of the Summit Ridge series, is available now on Amazon Kindle.

Come for the professional rivalry. Stay for the tension. And maybe don’t let Macy hear you call it a team-building exercise.