Jace Thornton was supposed to be the Nashville Copperheads' next breakout star. Twenty-three, fast enough to burn past anyone, and hungry enough to play through anything. Then one hit rewrites everything. The doctors do not say he will never play again. They say "if," and that is worse.
Mateo Silva has rebuilt enough broken athletes to know the difference between determination and denial. His new patient has both in dangerous quantities. Jace shows up to every session early, pushes past every limit, and grins at Mateo like the pain does not exist. It does. Mateo can see it. That is the problem.
The recovery takes months. The sessions are daily. The apartment the Copperheads set up for Jace is four blocks from the clinic, in a neighborhood where pedal steel bleeds out of every open door and nobody talks about hockey. There is no distance here, and what starts as professional concern stops being professional long before either of them is willing to name it.
Jace needs someone who will not sugarcoat the odds. Mateo needs someone who will not make him care more than the job allows. But Mateo has never had a patient who looks at him like Jace does. And Jace has never met anyone who makes him want to be more than the game he might be losing.
The comeback is not guaranteed. What they have might be.
Sidelined is Book 9 in the Ice Breakers series, a spicy MM hockey romance featuring a career-threatening injury, a physical therapist with boundaries he has never broken, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Each book can be read as a complete standalone with no cliffhangers.
For readers who enjoy:
Mateo Silva has rebuilt enough broken athletes to know the difference between determination and denial. His new patient has both in dangerous quantities. Jace shows up to every session early, pushes past every limit, and grins at Mateo like the pain does not exist. It does. Mateo can see it. That is the problem.
The recovery takes months. The sessions are daily. The apartment the Copperheads set up for Jace is four blocks from the clinic, in a neighborhood where pedal steel bleeds out of every open door and nobody talks about hockey. There is no distance here, and what starts as professional concern stops being professional long before either of them is willing to name it.
Jace needs someone who will not sugarcoat the odds. Mateo needs someone who will not make him care more than the job allows. But Mateo has never had a patient who looks at him like Jace does. And Jace has never met anyone who makes him want to be more than the game he might be losing.
The comeback is not guaranteed. What they have might be.
Sidelined is Book 9 in the Ice Breakers series, a spicy MM hockey romance featuring a career-threatening injury, a physical therapist with boundaries he has never broken, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Each book can be read as a complete standalone with no cliffhangers.
For readers who enjoy:
- Hurt/comfort with real stakes
Patient/therapist slow burn
Identity beyond the game
Spicy MM sports romance
Genre: Romance