





Spending the night in jail isn’t exactly how I planned to spend Christmas, but I’ve had worse holidays…
Now that I’m out, it’s time to accept my real punishment. Coaching ten-year-old terrors on the ice, in my non-existent free time. My Coach thinks it’d be good for me. Remind me where I came from. He should know I’ve tried every day of my life for the last ten years to forget.
The youth hockey league is a hell I didn’t plan on and the worst penalty possible…
Until the day a sweet, single mom cracks a joke about her kid, and then all bets are off.
I’m the best defenseman in professional hockey, but I didn’t see her coming… now what in the hell do I do? I’m not equipped for a relationship. I’m definitely not ready to have a kid depending on me, but I can’t deny she makes me feel things— want things I never imagined I could have.
I should save us both the trouble and stay far away from her. But rules were made to be broken, and I was never good at following them anyway.
If there's one thing I know to be certain in life, it's to expect the unexpected. I never expected to become a teen mom or have to flee a toxic relationship years later. And I certainly never expected to go head-to-head with Jacob Harris, doctor of veterinary medicine, to prove I'm worthy of running the struggling rescue full of misfit animals I suddenly inherited.
Jacob is as smug as he is good looking, and I refuse to let that cocky grin or sharp jawline distract me. I won't go down without a fight, and this time, it'll be easy to stand my ground when my opponent is someone I can't stand--even though my body reacts whenever he's around. This time I'm not backing down no matter how much he gets under my skin.
But the more I push, the more he pulls...until I don't know what I'm more at a risk of losing: the rescue or my heart.