Cross-Check My Heart by Vincent K. Stanhope

He came to Maple Creek to disappear.

Instead, Cole Maddox met the one man who refused to let him.

Twenty-two years old and already washed up.
One glorious NHL season, one bar fight, one tabloid headline, and a temper that torched everything he loved.

Now he's coaching nine-year-olds in a rink that smells like bleach and rot, hiding from the media vultures and the brother who needs him gone from Toronto.

Drew Campbell is the assistant coach with wire-rim glasses, a limp he won't explain, and a daughter named Tara who sees straight through Cole's armor.

Drew wanted the new guy to be terrible.
He needed him to be.
Because if the washed-up hotshot turns out to be worth a damn, Drew has no excuse left for the way his pulse trips every time Cole looks at him.

One closeted star with everything to lose.
One single dad who already lost too much.
One sheet of ice where neither of them is supposed to fall.

But the lines blur over early-morning practices and coffee that tastes like a truce, and the secret they're building could end Cole's last shot at a comeback and tear Drew's quiet life apart.

Then a scout's eyes land on them, the tabloids close in, and Drew asks the question that breaks the dam.

"Are you going to be here, Cole? Or am I just the thing you do until they let you leave?"

One of them is running from the spotlight.
The other is running from his own heart.
And the love worth fighting for might cost them both the only lives they know how to live.

Cross-Check My Heart is a yearning, banter-soaked MM hockey romance about a closeted star, a single dad, forced proximity, a guarded heart, a secret that could ruin everything, and a love worth fighting for.

Perfect for readers who love MM hockey romance, grumpy-sunshine pairings, single-dad heroes, closeted-athlete angst, slow-burn forced proximity, and small-town second chances. A standalone romance with a happily-ever-after.