A DDLG Age Gap Summer Romance

You'd think after spending twenty years living on a ship more than I ever lived on land, I'd be sick of the water. But as soon as I retired from the Navy, I settled in Sizzle Beach. The water was my home, and I couldn't bear to part with it.

And the water gave me my little one.

From the moment I laid my eyes on her two years ago, Raleigh had been the center of my universe. I was her caretaker, and she trusted me enough to regress as she felt like it, letting me take care of her.

It was one of the greatest gifts I'd ever received.

Until she started calling me Daddy.

Lines were beginning to get blurred, but I couldn't bring myself to stop it. I wanted her so badly. I wanted everything with her, but I never wanted to destroy her safe haven, her comfort, or what we had together.

But if she was willing to do the destroying to finally take a chance with me...

Well, who in the hell was I to stop her?

At twenty-three, I lost everything. My husband. My love for life. My will to live.

All I had left was my beautiful baby boy.

Somehow, I picked up the pieces of myself and my life, and I moved to Sizzle Beach, the one place I was hoping I would still find happiness.

The moment my toes touched the sand, I sat on the ground, clutching Alex on my lap, and I cried. I cried because I still had something in this world that brought me peace.

With my dad's help, I bought a small house and turned the front half into a bookstore, leaving the back half as my house.

Seven years later, I've mostly found my footing. Every day still hurts, but I'm living.

But it's not until Slater--a sinfully hot lifeguard--dances into my life that my soul lights on fire again.

He's sweet, kind, and so good with Alex. He makes me burn inside in a way my husband never had.

I may have been drowning in the deep end, but Slater is about to pull my head above the water.

Tarek

What a way to spend the summer! I’m wiling away every day on the beach, surrounded by sun, surf and pretty girls. But I’m on the lookout for just one girl who will steal my heart.

My brother found love in Sizzle Beach, and it seems like a good idea to me. But I needed a cover. No one can know I’m the brother of a sheik or the CFO of our oil company. So here I am, taking a long vacation from my job and joining the Sizzle Beach Ocean Rescue as a lifeguard. When I see the red-headed beauty, whose hair seems to reflect fifty shades of sunlight, I’m captivated and I need to make her mine.

Sariah

Taking summer vacation in the sizzling hot of Sizzle Beach wasn’t exactly what I’d planned for this year. But my sister is getting married here. To my dismay, I seem to be a hot target for all the single frat guys attending, so when the tall, dark and handsome lifeguard takes an interest in me, I know exactly what to do—talk him into being my date for this wedding fiasco.

Problem is…what about afterward? Because I find myself more than attracted to Tarek. I could see myself staying in Sizzle Beach for longer than a week, just to be with him. But that’s not how summer vacation works. So what will we do when Sunday rolls around and I need to say goodbye?

If my nana is watching from the afterlife, she’s gotta be pretty ticked off at me right now. I’m down here converting the gracious beachfront Victorian she left me into a tattoo studio right on Sizzle Beach. She might even be as aggravated as the new lifeguard patrolling my stretch of beach seems to be.

Every time I turn around, Wade Elagado is there with his stern frowns and bossy lectures. He thinks I need a minder to keep me out of trouble. I think if he’s serious about playing Daddy, then he’d better bring a paddle and own the title.

I’ve never been good at following rules, and I sure don’t plan to start now.

Logan

Sizzle Beach Ocean Rescue has been my life since my junior year in high school, and now that I’ve graduated college, I’ve joined the Fire Rescue. They send me where they need me, which in the summer has me right back on the lifeguard stand. There are worse places to be. Like up a five-alarm blaze with no fire hose. I feel right at home on the sand and in the water. That’s where I see her, all alone on her towel, attracting me like the beach calls to the tide every night. I try to resist, but when I see her day after day, there’s nothing I can do but get to know this girl on a beach blanket.

Alice

Coming to Sizzle Beach with my best friend, to work at her grandparents’ resort hotel seemed like the perfect getaway from my life. Fresh out of a breakup, downsized out of my job and homeless after a police standoff gone bad, leaving town seemed written in the stars. To be clear, I’m not the criminal they were after, but the fun I plan to have on the beach, probably should be illegal. Me, my bikini and my beach blanket will get some quality time on the sand far away from all my worries—once my shift at the resort is over, of course.

And if I have a good time with one of the local lifeguards, that’s just sea foam atop the perfect waves. Problem is, Logan makes me think of life after the summer, but he has his future all together, everything perfectly planned. Where does a hot mess like me fit into that?

Breezy

The guys vacationing here think the girl lifeguards of the Sizzle Beach Ocean Rescue are like the babes on that popular TV show. We’re not. Not completely anyway. I mean, we can kick butt, too. We can save a mouthwatering tattooed guy who gets in trouble swimming on a red flag day. If he happens to be my ex… Well, maybe I should have let him drown. But hey, it’s my job to save lives. Even his.

Felix

I don’t know how I ended up in the water. No, really, I don’t. I recall just about everything from my life until a few hours before that. Like that the starfish on my side is a tribute to my little starfish, my ex Breezy. I clearly recall how she broke up with me because she thought I cheated on her. As if I would! Even with this episodic amnesia, I know I’d never want anyone but her. Never. And I remember the time since then in perfect, gray-scale clarity. Until a few hours before she plucked me out of the water.

But hey! Now that we're here, I’m beginning my campaign to get my starfish back.

Chasing a dream can be hard, even more so when it isn’t yours.

I love the movie Runaway Bride, but I never expected to become one. I’ve spent years conforming, doing anything asked of me, in a bid to gain my parents’ respect…and their love. I think I was more surprised than they were when I finally put my foot down at an arranged marriage. Being the responsible adult that I am, I ran, gown and all – See? – to Sizzle Beach. One of my besties found love there. Me? I just want to find myself. And maybe get a little revenge while doing it. But the city intends to get some, too…in the form of Jericho Madsen.

Being a dentist isn’t what every kid strives to be, yet there was no other option for me. The field has always fascinated me and I go in five days a week with a smile on my face, pun intended. The other two, though? My office is the ocean, the tastefully chosen carpet is replaced by sand, and my drill is exchanged for a rescue device. I’ve got the best of both worlds and can’t see things getting any brighter. Until I save Cameron Schultz from a man that’s all in her face. It might’ve involved a chipped tooth, or two, in the process. No worries, mate. I can fix those. I mean, I won’t, but I could.

Parks Gardner knew what was expected of him. From the day he was born, his life was planned and scheduled so that one day, he could take over his father’s company. But as Parks grew, he realized he wanted nothing to do with his father, the company he built, or the life he wasn’t allowed to live for himself. Leaving it all behind was easy, and he never looked back. And once he finds the girl that is meant to be his? He knew he had made the right choice. But love isn’t that easy. Especially when the love of his life and his future hates him, can he win her over? Or is their love doomed from the beginning?

Spring Wallace hasn’t had it easy after a car accident changed her life, and not for the better. Her father was killed, and their lives were thrown into turmoil; and Spring had to figure out how to navigate life from a wheelchair until she was strong enough to walk again. But as the years slipped by, so did her hope. When she meets a handsome stranger, her hope seems to lift. Only to find out his father is the reason she is stuck in this chair. Can Spring forgive him and accept his love?