I’ve worked hard to rebuild my life since losing my wife three years ago and am ready to find love again. I thought Brielle might be the one until a family emergency pulled her away. Now, I’m playing the dating game in Atlanta’s high-stakes film scene and get the surprise of my life when I discover Brielle is one of the contestants. Readers who enjoy reality TV show drama and single dad romances will fall in love with Groomsman to Groom by Terra Weiss, a steamy, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy.
Reality TV dating—the drama’s fake, but the heartbreak’s real.
Chosen to be the star of Groomsman to Groom, I have thirty women vying for my heart. Losing my wife three years ago shattered me, but I fought hard to rebuild my life for my son—my everything. Now, he’s nudging me to find love again.
I already found someone, though—Brielle Wilson. Brilliant, beautiful, and a total nerd like me. On our midnight beach walk six months ago, we went three rounds over Captain Picard versus Spock, and she knows her stuff—a rare gem. That night, things got heated, fast, and she made me feel again, something I wasn’t sure I was capable of anymore.
But a family emergency pulled her away, and now, I’m playing the dating game in Atlanta’s high-stakes film scene, risking everything—my career, my relationship with my son—to find love on this wild show. Skye, my witty ex-stepmother and the host, guides me through staged drama and genuine feelings. Especially when Brielle shows up as a contestant.
Maybe she felt the connection I did? Maybe the connection I felt is gone?
I vowed to keep an open heart, but secrets won’t stay hidden for long. If someone finds out about our tryst, it could destroy everything—friendships, reputations, and any shot at real love.
*Groomsman to Groom is a witty, heartfelt stand-alone romcom with adult language and steamy, open-door chemistry that will have you rooting for a happily-ever-after.
Excerpt
Copyright 2025, Terra Weiss
HAYES
So this is what it feels like to be America’s most eligible bachelor. I’m sweating bullets on this perfect seventy-five-degree March day in Atlanta as thirty women prepare to compete for something I hope like hell to give away—my heart. Eight months ago, I was just a photographer who happened to pee on a jellyfish victim at the beach. Now I’m “Hero Hayes,” and this season’s replacement star of Groomsman to Groom. Life has a twisted sense of humor.
I’m standing outside the show’s ridonkulous mansion dressed in a five-thousand-dollar Dior-sponsored tuxedo. It’s not my usual style—and I definitely miss my T-shirt, jeans, and Vans, but I clean up nicely. I mean, wait until my old high school classmates see me.
They’ll be shocked. When I knew them, I was so painfully introverted, I had one friend who was a fellow gamer. My father will be the most shocked of all. That is, if he even sees the show—but I’m not going to think about that.
I still can’t believe I’m here. For so long, everyone kept saying that there’s more than one fish in the sea, but it was hard to wrap my head around my devastating grief over Sarah.
A lot of Bingeflix, boxes of Kleenex, and years of therapy later, I understand she’ll always be in my heart, but I know I have room for another. There is someone else for me, and I’m hellbent on finding her. Yeah, I’m busting myself out of the rut I’ve been in for the past three years—and it feels damn good.
Mostly good, except the skin tight boxers that’re cutting off circulation to parts I’d prefer to keep functioning. Skye, famous in her own right and the show’s host, is leaning in to tell me something when Tanya, our high-strung on-site producer, calls out, “Two minutes!” She taps her headset. “Remember to smile. America fell in love with your smile.”
America fell in love with the pixelated blur over my crotch, but sure, let’s go with my smile.
I tug at the bowtie that’s plotting my strangulation, along with the knowledge that my nine-year-old son will watch this circus later. Although I promised to fast-forward through any “steamy” parts.
“You good?” Tanya’s eyebrows perk so high they’re practically part of her hairline.
“Never better,” I lie, channeling my inner Vulcan to suppress the anxiety bubbling under my skin. That’s how I’ve gotten through most of my life—compartmentalizing emotions when they threaten to overwhelm me. It worked when my dad left. After my wife died. After I became a single dad overnight.
The first limo pulls up, and here we go. Game face on.
Skye, her bright pink gown a splash of color against the blue stone driveway, looks into the camera and says, “And it’s time for our Hayes Burke to do what he came to do—find his soulmate. Will he or won’t he? Only the universe knows his path. The rest of us will have to watch to find out.”
“Hayes Burke,” Tanya whispers, “if you don’t smile right now, I will personally ensure your photography website experiences a mysterious and permanent crash.”
I muster my most charming grin. The camera guys give a thumbs up. The door opens.
About Terra Weiss
Award-winning author of romantic comedies and romantic mysteries, Terra Weiss brings heart, humor, and happy endings to each of her books. She grew up in a small town in Idaho, but now lives in Atlanta with her mad scientist husband, wacky and wonderful mother, spunky daughter, and the feral ten-pound dogs who run her house. She enjoys jogging at a snail's pace, reading, and piling bright orange mountains of squeezy cheese on her crackers.
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