The Blade Kings

How to complicate your rookie season in the NHL: fake date your former college rival and now teammate's ex-girlfriend. It's a bad idea, and I know it, especially since Kendra Hart has had a hold over me since our freshman year of college. She has no idea how I feel, and I have zero control over my mouth when her life goes up in smoke and she needs a friend, along with a place to stay. My coach, who also happens to be my stepdad, is warning me to stay away not only for the team's sake but to spare me from getting hurt. I should probably listen to his advice.

I'm the unapproachable NHL captain with a reputation for chewing up reporters in interviews, forwards on the ice, and shutting down anyone who tries to get close to me. And that's how I like it—no feelings, no complications, and zero chance of reliving the grief I experienced when my wife passed away seven years ago. But sometimes the best laid plans go up in flames, and that's exactly what Collins Mackenzie does when she strolls into a bar one post-game night and gives me a taste of the cold shoulder I've bestowed on all those around me.