His game… Her rules. Hockey star Jackson Knight has a hundred reasons not to return to Promise Harbor, but none of them are good enough to get him out of attending his best friend’s wedding. Even with a career-ending knee injury, every puck-bunny in town will be gunning for him.
Worse, getting a pair of cuffs slapped on him at the bachelor party could ruin any chance of getting back in the game, even as a coach. Unless he can convince the arresting officer to smooth things over—by going to the wedding as his date.
Hayley Stone figures posing as Jackson’s girlfriend is the least she can do to salvage his reputation. Plus, having a man with a toe-curling smile on her arm will keep her ex off her back.
What starts as a simple plan to deflect small-town pot-shots unexpectedly becomes a sizzling night that hits Jackson like a full-body-check to the heart. Now he’s determined to prove that she’s the best reason of all to come home—for good.
Warning: Contains a fiery powerplay both on and off the ice, skin-tingling forced intimacy, interfering grandparents, bear costume hijinks, a haunted house and the kind of game-changing chemistry worth fighting for.
EXCERPT:
“Sunset Bluff.” The words were out, his
mind snagging the faint memory before it slipped away.
She paused, facing him with that skeptical
brow arched.
“You and me in a red Chevy with a passenger
window that wouldn’t roll down.” There was no way he had imagined that face
staring at him through the passenger window, right? He’d borrowed the Chevy
specifically for that date at the last second when the transmission had died on
his own car.
“I remember that truck.” A flattering smile
curved her lips, reinforcing the fuzzy memory he still couldn’t quite nail
down. “The radio sucked.” More tools went into the bag.
The radio? “That’s all you remember?”
Her gaze turned reminiscent. “I do remember
you throwing up everywhere.”
Details he could have done without came
into sharper focus. He could count on one hand how many times he’d gotten drunk
before being drafted for the NHL at nineteen, and luck would have it that she’d
apparently been there for one of those shining moments.
Fantastic.
He winced at the memory and the smile she
tried to hide. Despite their embarrassing history, he found himself returning
the smile. “At least tell me I made it up to you?”
She laughed even harder. “Not even close.”
She hefted the bag off the table and carried it to the bar. “And I highly doubt
it would have occurred to you to try.”
He hadn’t been nearly the jerk a lot of his
high school buddies had been, even if his mind had been on hockey more than
girls. With that easy, sexy smile of hers, he would have wanted to take her out
again. He was sure of it.
“Then let me make it up to you now.” He gestured
to the bar. “Let me buy you a drink. We can catch up, or at least maybe I can
help you remember something better about that night.” His earlier determination
to avoid women this weekend was going down in flames.
She threw him a disbelieving look. “You
don’t even remember me.”
His silence was undoubtedly telling, but it
was coming back to him. Heather…Heidi… Something like that.
