Almost One Night Stand

Pine (Holding Out for a Cowboy) sparkles in this small-town charmer. After Haddie Martin’s unfeeling grandmother, whom she thinks of as her “grandmonster,” dies, Haddie leaves Chicago for a teaching job in quirky Summertown, Ill., home of her best friend, Emma. On her road trip there, she meets Levi Rourke in a hotel bar and the pair hit it off. Haddie makes it up to Levi’s room before getting cold feet and abruptly fleeing before they have sex. She’s embarrassed by the encounter, but at least she has no reason to think she’ll ever see him again. Then she arrives in Summertown and learns that her landlord has accidentally accepted two tenants in the two-bedroom apartment that was meant to be Haddie’s oasis. Worse, her new unwanted roommate is none other than Levi himself. A college football coach on a one-year suspension after punching a ref, Levi’s reluctantly back in his hometown and working at the high school. Levi and Haddie try to keep things platonic so as not to screw up their living situation—but in such close quarters, their chemistry soon reignites. It’s easy to fall in love with both characters, and Pine makes the most of the forced proximity trope to bring them together. This is a sweet treat. (Jan.)