Rough Ice - A Hockey Romance #1006930

Maya Rourke arrives at the Minnesota Steele as their new sports nutritionist with one difficult assignment: get veteran goalie Cole Harrington to follow a recovery nutrition protocol after his shoulder surgery. Cole, thirty-four and terrified of what the word "retirement" implies, treats her as an intrusion into the last things he controls. Forced together through road trips, hotel bars, and late-night sessions, their professional hostility slowly becomes something neither of them will name.

Cole begins following the protocol quietly, without admitting it. Maya sees the change and the person underneath the wall. A Pittsburgh hotel bar conversation about his dead father cracks something open. A Denver blizzard traps them together. A fundraiser dance becomes three minutes that say everything. A near-kiss in the stretch room is called off before it lands.

When Maya receives an offer from a New York organization, Cole hears half the phone call, panics, and tells her to take the job — his version of driving someone away before they can leave. Maya, who has already declined the offer and chosen Minnesota, calls him a coward and walks away.

After Dex corners him and forces him to see the pattern, Cole shows up at Maya's apartment on a Sunday evening without calling ahead. He tells her the truth: about his father, his fear, what he's been doing for twelve years. She tells him she stayed, and why, and that she loves him and is also afraid. He asks instead of decides. She says yes.

The playoffs follow. The Steele win. Cole signs his three-year extension. Six months later, at his lake cabin, they have a summer that looks exactly like the future he almost didn't let himself want. HEA confirmed.