The Backup Goalie Bet

by Maren Quinn

Heat 4 / 5 · 21+Novella · 12 chapters39,826 words2h 53m read~4h 26m listen

Every morning at 5:40 a.m., before the Northwood Wolves hit the ice and the rest of the world wakes up, Rhea Lang is already there — coaxing a dying compressor back to life with her bare hands and a prayer. She is the backup goalie nobody believes in and the rink ops lead whose paycheck vanishes at dawn without a supervisor’s signature. She cannot afford to lose either job. She especially cannot afford Xander Torres.

He is the Wolves’ brooding star netminder, the one management is quietly losing faith in, and the man who just humiliated her in front of the entire locker room over half an inch of soft ice. He is also, as of one furious, poorly lit tunnel confrontation, her only way out.

The deal is simple and catastrophically stupid: Rhea runs Xander through secret pre-dawn drills to rebuild the game that’s slipping away from him. He signs the ops paperwork that keeps her in Northwood for another week. Nobody finds out. Nobody catches feelings. Nobody risks the one thing either of them has left.

Hockey RomanceEnemies To LoversGrumpy Sunshine