Edge of the Slot

by Maren Quinn

Heat 3 / 5Novella · 12 chapters32,587 words2h 22m read~3h 37m listen

Tatum Voss has one rule: stay invisible. Crunch the numbers, fix the power play, and never get close enough to wreck another career. But when their tablet freezes on a single damning frame—Rourke Callahan’s ankle folding over a rut in the ice at Northwood Civic Arena—invisible stops being an option.

Rourke is everything Tatum fears. Gorgeous, furious, and hiding an injury that could end his contract year. He’s also the best friend of the veteran whose career Tatum’s viral analytics piece helped unravel, and he has not forgotten the name behind it. When the Wolves’ front office forces them into secret midnight rehab sessions on a dark practice sheet—no trainers, no paperwork, just the two of them and the hum of half-lit LEDs—hostility is the only thing keeping the cold at bay.

But drills become confessions. Banter becomes a 3 a.m. truth neither of them planned to speak. And somewhere between borrowed skates, a team bus insomnia hour, and Rourke’s hands catching Tatum’s waist on empty ice, the war between data and instinct starts to feel a lot like falling.

Hockey RomanceEnemies To LoversGrumpy Sunshine