The Waiting Game

(2027)
(The third book in the Austin Stampede Hockey Romance series)
A Story by Maddie Langley

The Austin Stampede's season continues with Aiden and Caela's slow-burn, second-chance at first love.

AIDEN

The minute her big brother went pro, I fell hard for Caela Callahan. Two years later, she gave my ring back with one call and reasons that still don't add up.

Now I'm captain of the Austin Stampede, and I play patient hockey. Read the ice. Wait for the play. Never force the game.

But hockey IQ won't help when my feisty ex-fiancee shows up with a league badge and an assignment to run our PR.

My best friend knows I'm not over his little sister. Caela doesn't.

Yet.

CAELA

I've loved Aiden McCrae since before I had braces. But after growing up in my brother Liam's shadow, I finally found my own success in a sport that doesn't make much room for women.

Standing on my own meant skating away from the best man I've ever known. He would have given up everything for me, because that's what good men do. But then he'd be the one living in someone else's shadow. And what would that make me?

Now the league wants me to build its biggest youth hockey campaign around this year's Cup-winning captain. The tour retraces his road to the NHL. The league doesn't know I was there for every step.

Every look he gives me makes me wonder what we could have been if I hadn't been so stubborn.

On the ice, the waiting game is all about timing. Wait too long, and the chance is gone. Get it right, and it's the goal that wins it all.

🏒 TROPES YOU'LL LOVE 🏒

The Waiting Game is a teammate's-little-sister, second-chance hockey romance packed with slow-burn pining, a love story years in the making, and one very patient captain. This one's for the readers who love pro team sports romance where the hero never got over his first love, the heroine never stopped fighting for her own spotlight, and the whole found family isn't letting the captain take this shift by himself. It's all wrapped up in these top tropes:

Teammate's Little Sister Where She Fell First as a Teen, He Fell Hard, and He Never Stopped Loving Her
- Second Chance at First Love
  - Forced Proximity on the Road with Just One Bed: She's Running the Campaign, He's the Face of It
    - Black Cat Heroine x NHL Captain Who's All Business on the Ice and a Cinnamon Roll for Her
      - Found-Family Team Chaos along with a Ride-or-Die Girl Gang
        
        Steamy/Spicy NHL Hockey Romance that's a Standalone with Guaranteed HEA
        
        Low Angst Romance Book with High Dopamine and No Third-Act Breakup
        
        Genre: Romance

About Fantastic Fiction Information for Authors