Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Say YES. Obviously.
I’ve spent three years lusting after Grammercy Graves on my (supposedly anonymous) hockey romance podcast—breaking down his stats, his plays, that panty-melting Cajun accent...
The entire internet knows he’s my dream guy. What they don’t know? I’m a broke single mom who just lost her job—and the health insurance my daughter needs.
When Grammercy finds me crying in a supply closet at a team party, he offers the wildest
Fake marriage. Real benefits. One year.
No strings. No S-E-X. Just shared coverage and a room with my name on it.
But he’s so good with my daughter. So generous, so funny, so kind.
And when it’s just the two of us? He treats me like I’m someone special.
Like I’m his.
Soon, every kiss for the cameras turns into a kiss we can’t stop, and it’s getting harder and harder to remember this is all pretend.
There’s just one secret that could ruin it all—my podcast, the one that proves I wasn’t telling the whole story when we first “met.”
When he finds out, will he walk away…
Or make my wildest fangirl fantasies come true?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
WHEN YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW…
What’s it like to have your entire world turned upside down with a single glance?
Let me tell you.
It’s a hot night in October, magic-hour light drenching Magazine Street like it wants to lick every inch of New Orleans until it’s stickier than it is already. I’m stopped at a red light when I see her—dark hair, red dress, cardboard box in her arms. She’s coming out of an office building, looking tired in that bone-deep way that makes you want to ask a person who hurt them.
Then punch whoever it was in the face…
I would punch people for this woman, I realize. That’s instantly a given, though I’m known in the league for being a lover, not a fighter.
But for her?
Fuck, she’s so beautiful.
So sad.
So…mine?
It’s a crazy thought. Absolutely out of bounds.
But I swear, something happens to me in that moment. It’s not love. I’m not that off my rocker, there are no stalker-flavored Netflix shows in my future, thank you very much. But…it’s something intense. Real. A bone-deep recognition.
Like every cell in my body suddenly wakes up and shouts, “It’s you. Finally.”
Then, cars honk behind me.
The light’s turned green.
I pull away, but inside, I’m already making plans. I drive through this neighborhood every day. I know that building. I can find her again.
I have to find her again.
For the next few days, I’m a man possessed. I drive by that office complex every day. Sometimes twice a day. I tell myself I’m just taking different routes to practice, but I’m full of shit.
At night, I dream about her. Brown eyes full of secrets. The elegant curve of her neck. The way she looked carrying that box like it held the weight of the world. I wake up with my heart beating fast, wondering if I’ll ever see her again.
Surely, I wouldn’t be so stuck on this woman if there weren’t a reason for it. Even before that night at the party, something in me is already insisting that Fate has something to do with all this.
Then, in the middle of schmoozing sponsors at the first big event of the NHL season, I hear crying from a supply closet.
And when I open the door…there she is.
Magazine Street Girl, with mascara running down her cheeks.
“It’s you,” she whispers, the same words that ran through my head the first time I saw her, and that does something to me that I can’t fully explain.
I thought I had life all figured out. I had the world on a string—Stanley Cup ring in my first pro season, top-tier player in a brand-new team, back in my hometown, ready to build a legacy. Then Elly smiled just for me, and suddenly it was her. Just her and the baby girl she’d die for.
Just this family I knew—knew—was supposed to be mine.
You think I’m crazy? You think love only happens the way you expect it to happen? You want magic, but not too much magic, not the kind that forces you to rethink everything you thought you knew to be true?
You think a man can’t see forever in a stranger’s tired eyes?
That’s okay. I wasn’t a believer, either.
Not until Elly.
Now, I’d do anything for this woman.
And before this is over, I’ll prove it.
I’m not giving up on her, on us, no matter what the world throws our way.
Chapter
One
ELOISE “ELLY” THIBODEAUX
Excerpt from the LOVE ON ICE PODCAST
- EPISODE 127 Red Flags and Power Plays,
Recorded in October.
(Theme music fades.)
Welcome back to the Love on Ice podcast, where we break down the latest NHL gossip on and off the rink. I’m your host, Luvvy Puck, coming to you from…my bathtub. (The acoustics are great in here, don’t judge.)
(Sound of shower curtain rustling, followed by a quiet laugh.)
Tonight, we have red flags, green flags, and what happens when a player you love goes viral for all the wrong reasons.
I’m looking at you, Trevor Morrison of the Seattle Storm, who apparently thought taking a woman to Boobie Bob’s Lobster Shack was appropriate first-date behavior.
Lovies, I’m no prude. I’m from New Orleans, for goodness’ sake—we have a proud tradition of flashing our tatas for Mardi Gras treats.
Still, I feel confident saying that most women don’t want boobies in their face on a first date. But Trevor’s fatal mistake came when he asked this poor girl to split the bill even though she’s in nursing school. On scholarship.
Which she shared during the date. But maybe he was too distracted by all the “lobster” to remember…
Either way, your fifty-fifty play took this from a red flag to a full-fledged dating penalty, Trevor. Do better.
[Womp womp, penalty sound effect.]
Moving on to green flags! And our favorite Engagin’ Cajun, star of the New Orleans’ Voodoo expansion team, Grammercy Graves…
[Dreamy sigh sound effect.]
Picture this: Our boy, a microphone, and a bilingual reading of The Day the Crayons Quit at the Children’s Literacy Fair.