Tyler Ross can read any play on the ice before it happens. Patterns, trajectories, probabilities — his mind processes all of it in the time it takes most people to blink. It's what makes him the Eagles' most precise player. It's also what makes him the last person anyone would pair with Sloane Mitchell.
Sloane is chronically late, perpetually paint-splattered, and talking to her murals like they talk back. She bartends at O'Brien's, takes on too many commissions, and lives entirely on instinct. She is, by every measurable metric, chaos.
When Sloane is hired to paint a permanent mural at the Evergreen Cove arena — and Tyler somehow ends up as her project liaison — he tells himself it's manageable. Defined scope. Clear timeline. He can handle this.
He cannot handle this.
Because somewhere between late-night site visits and the specific shade of cadmium red she uses for sunsets, Tyler realizes that Sloane is the one pattern he can't stop trying to read. And Sloane, who has spent years keeping things loose and leaving before it gets complicated, is running out of reasons to look away.
He notices everything. She feels everything. Neither of them has any idea what to do about the other.
A warm, funny, and quietly devastating small-town hockey romance about two people who make absolutely no sense together — until suddenly they're the only thing that does.
Tropes: opposites attract, forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, neurodivergent hero, artist and athlete, slow burn, he falls first
Spice level: 2/5 — sweet with some heat
Part of the Evergreen Cove small-town hockey series. Each book follows a different couple and can be read completely on its own, though fans of the series will enjoy catching up with familiar faces from Evergreen Cove.
Genre: Romance
Sloane is chronically late, perpetually paint-splattered, and talking to her murals like they talk back. She bartends at O'Brien's, takes on too many commissions, and lives entirely on instinct. She is, by every measurable metric, chaos.
When Sloane is hired to paint a permanent mural at the Evergreen Cove arena — and Tyler somehow ends up as her project liaison — he tells himself it's manageable. Defined scope. Clear timeline. He can handle this.
He cannot handle this.
Because somewhere between late-night site visits and the specific shade of cadmium red she uses for sunsets, Tyler realizes that Sloane is the one pattern he can't stop trying to read. And Sloane, who has spent years keeping things loose and leaving before it gets complicated, is running out of reasons to look away.
He notices everything. She feels everything. Neither of them has any idea what to do about the other.
A warm, funny, and quietly devastating small-town hockey romance about two people who make absolutely no sense together — until suddenly they're the only thing that does.
Tropes: opposites attract, forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, neurodivergent hero, artist and athlete, slow burn, he falls first
Spice level: 2/5 — sweet with some heat
Part of the Evergreen Cove small-town hockey series. Each book follows a different couple and can be read completely on its own, though fans of the series will enjoy catching up with familiar faces from Evergreen Cove.
Genre: Romance