Sure Shot: A Hockey Romance

At first, the request seemed simple - sign a new athlete to the agency. Then I found out the new athlete was none other than the most wanted man in hockey today: Hunter Maddox. Gifted. Sexy. At the top of his game. And the only man who has ever broken my heart. If signing him will help save our family business, I’ll swallow my pride and do what’s asked. But when it becomes clear his uncharacteristic antics off the ice are a hint of something deeper, keeping things strictly professional between us becomes more than complicated. But I know better than to cross that line.

Lonnie Derringer is a filthy-mouthed, dirty-talking, long-distance fling. (That's been going on for two years.) I know, I know. That's not a fling. This might be getting serious. I look forward to our quickie lunch dates and the way he whispers in my ear every night from 2,000 miles away. He's the best boyfriend I never had. Until I find out his name isn't Lonnie, it's Alonzo. Until I find out he's not some boring accountant with a dead-end job, he's a six-foot-four, yoked-out, tatted-up fisherman who never wears a shirt!

My name is Ryan Kingston, and I’m a rule follower. I’ve never been in a fistfight. I always obey the speed limit. I don’t get drunk, and I definitely don’t pick up random women at bars. Except the night I found out that my whole existence has been a lie. I got drunk. And picked up a stranger. Her name was Queenie, and she was everything I’m not: reckless, impulsive, and chaotic. We did shots and traded secrets. And ended up naked at my place. Six weeks later I’m sitting in the first official team meeting of the season, and there she is. 

I didn't mean to star in a sex tape, okay? It was just one of those unexplainable things. Like Stonehenge, Police Academy 2, and morning glory clouds. It just happened. Now, my ball-busting father is sentencing me to six months of celibacy, sobriety, and morbid boredom under the roof of Boston's nerdiest girl alive, Sailor Brennan. The virginal archer is supposed to babysit my ass while I learn to take my place in Royal Pipelines, my family's oil company. Little does she know, that's not the only pipe I'll be laying....

The feud between Weston Lockwood and me started at the altar. Only neither of us attended the wedding, and the nuptials happened decades before either of us was born. Our grandfathers had been best friends and business partners, at least up until my grandfather’s wedding day - when his bride-to-be blurted out she couldn’t marry him because she was also in love with Weston‘s grandfather.  

He’s growly. Grumpy. Stubborn. And now, my new roommate. Walking away from my disastrous last relationship was an easy decision, but moving in with a friend-of-a-friend hockey star who’s rarely home? Not quite as simple, because Grant makes me feel all kinds of things I’m not prepared for. Protected. Desired. Unsteady. 

I fell in love with Sydney Hastings when I was 10 years old. At 16, we whispered promises of forever. When I was 22, I broke them all. I left her and promised never to return. After my father's death, I’m forced to go home to Sugarloaf for six months. She'll be everywhere, no longer just in my memories and regrets. When we’re together, it’s as though time never stopped. She’s still the one I want, but I don’t deserve her. Instead of apologizing, I take that beautiful, broken woman in my arms. But after that, it’s her turn to leave me. Now I have to fight. For her. For us.

Midfielder Maclay "Mac" Logan is a loud-mouthed, tattooed ginger content with focusing on football. But when an adorable, freckled seamstress comes barreling into his life, he finds Netflix-And-Bickering with her to be his new favorite pastime. Freya Cook is used to being the invisible woman with a needle and thread, offering cheeky punchlines as she helps dress London's finest. She's plus-sized in body and spirit, and other than her friendship with Mac, talking to the opposite sex is one skill she never mastered. 

Best friends aren’t supposed to kiss. But these best friends did. He can’t get the taste of her lips off his mind. She can’t let go of the guilt from her mistake. He wants to be good enough for her. She wishes life were different. He’s the bad boy reject. She’s the girl next door. When opposites attract, they collide and create an explosion that can’t be ignored. Is it possible to be madly in love with your best friend?  

She says she doesn’t date players. She swears up and down that she’ll never handle my stick. We’ll see about that, sweetheart. When I win the pleasure of Harper’s company at a charity auction, I get exactly one date - one shot to win over the gorgeous and feisty brunette. Game on. I play hard, and I love a challenge. But just when I think I’ve finally carved out my shot...a huge secret implodes around us, threatening everything we’ve built.

As team captain and enforcer, Patrick O'Doul puts the bruise in the Brooklyn Bruisers. But after years of hard hits, O'Doul is feeling the burn, both physically and mentally. He conceals his pain from his coach and trainers, but when his chronic hip injury becomes too obvious to ignore, they send him for sessions with the team's massage therapist. After breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Ari Bettini is in need of peace of mind. For now she's decided to focus on her work: rehabilitating the Bruisers' MVP.

When I joined Seattle's NHL expansion team, I thought it was the start of something great. But nothing ever goes the way you expect. Take my introduction to my new neighbor. She came rolling in on the hot mess express at midnight, making a racket while she tried to get into my team captain's apartment. Did I mention that he's married to a woman who definitely was not her?

I’m at the height of my athletic career. Yet my arrogant brother is always trying to recruit me into the family business: a global security company so secretive that I don’t even know its name. Pass, thanks. I don’t need a summer job. But the jerk ambushes me with a damsel in distress. That damsel is Alex, the competitive, sassy girl I knew when we were kids. Now she’s a drop-dead gorgeous woman in deep trouble. So guess who’s on a flight to Hawaii?

Becoming a teen mom at 16 was not what I expected, but then again, neither was being a single parent. Still, I wouldn't change my past because that boy is my world. Hockey is the only thing my son seems to care about, so I work two jobs to make sure he can play. I'd do anything to make sure he doesn't suffer because of the bad decisions his father made. When he won a whole summer of hockey training, I knew in my heart he was going to have an amazing time.

Music is my life. It’s kept me breathing. Even when I couldn’t eat, sleep, or sing, I could still write songs. It’s the only thing that has saved me from going crazy. Until the day Reckless Alibi decides to hire a girl. Suddenly, everything from my past comes rushing back to me. And now she’s there. For every rehearsal. Every show. Every moment. Every song. We were supposed to be a boy band. Now everything has changed. I’m still breathing...but I’m sure as hell no longer sane.