I came home to fix a hockey team.
I didn’t come home to be seen.
And I definitely didn’t come home to fall for its untouchable captain.
Twelve weeks. That’s all the Vancouver Kings’ board gave me to rebuild a team with the talent to win—and none of the trust it takes to get there.
I told the general manager I don’t work miracles. I work numbers.
I was wrong about that too.
Because the answer isn’t hiding in a system or a statistic. It begins with Nico Varas—a man who arrives first, leaves last, and wears the captain’s letter like armor over everything he refuses to let anyone see.
Nico didn'''t ask for a performance expert. He asked the front office for a center who could win a draw.
He got me instead.
He gives me silence in every session.
Then meets me at the rink at 5:45 every morning.
Somewhere between locked film rooms, road games, and two cups of coffee, I start seeing the man beneath the jersey.
And he starts seeing straight through me.
I built my career by staying exactly far enough away from the people I’m paid to help. But the standings are rising, the board is watching, and every hour behind a closed door with Nico makes that line harder to hold.
Wanting him could cost us the season.
Choosing him could cost me my career.
Walking away might cost me the only place—and the only man—that has ever felt like home.
I never expected their captain to become the reason I wanted to stay.
THE HARD SEASON is a full-length, forbidden slow-burn hockey romance featuring a guarded team captain, a driven performance expert, workplace tension, emotional healing, found family, dual POV, and a hard-won happily ever after. It is the first standalone novel in the PACIFIC KINGS series. No cheating. No cliffhanger. A guaranteed HEA.
Genre: Romance
I didn’t come home to be seen.
And I definitely didn’t come home to fall for its untouchable captain.
Twelve weeks. That’s all the Vancouver Kings’ board gave me to rebuild a team with the talent to win—and none of the trust it takes to get there.
I told the general manager I don’t work miracles. I work numbers.
I was wrong about that too.
Because the answer isn’t hiding in a system or a statistic. It begins with Nico Varas—a man who arrives first, leaves last, and wears the captain’s letter like armor over everything he refuses to let anyone see.
Nico didn'''t ask for a performance expert. He asked the front office for a center who could win a draw.
He got me instead.
He gives me silence in every session.
Then meets me at the rink at 5:45 every morning.
Somewhere between locked film rooms, road games, and two cups of coffee, I start seeing the man beneath the jersey.
And he starts seeing straight through me.
I built my career by staying exactly far enough away from the people I’m paid to help. But the standings are rising, the board is watching, and every hour behind a closed door with Nico makes that line harder to hold.
Wanting him could cost us the season.
Choosing him could cost me my career.
Walking away might cost me the only place—and the only man—that has ever felt like home.
I never expected their captain to become the reason I wanted to stay.
THE HARD SEASON is a full-length, forbidden slow-burn hockey romance featuring a guarded team captain, a driven performance expert, workplace tension, emotional healing, found family, dual POV, and a hard-won happily ever after. It is the first standalone novel in the PACIFIC KINGS series. No cheating. No cliffhanger. A guaranteed HEA.
Genre: Romance
Used availability for J B Rose's The Hard Season