Theo

I don't deserve a second chance at hockey, or a first chance with Lola. I'm taking both anyway.

It took falling off a roof and doing catastrophic damage to my family, my body and my career, but I'm sober and want to stay that way. My future is bleak until, out of nowhere, I'm given a second chance to be a hockey player. It's more than I could have wished for, but it's also terrifying.

I don't know how to be a sober hockey player. I don't know how to date sober either —or do anything fun sober so the learning curve, and the nerves, are huge. The last thing I expected, on top of everything else, was to trauma-bond with Lola Casco, the beautiful sister of not one but two of my teammates. Yet, thanks to a snowstorm and a couple of panic attacks, that's exactly what happens. And now I can't get her out of my head.

Her bold smile, her sweet laugh, her sometimes brutal honesty – it's apparently what turns on sober me. And so when Lola suggests a situationship, with no strings attached, I can't say no. I'm good at no strings… or at least I used to be. Turns out that might have changed when I got sober too…. But good things aren't meant for me, I don't deserve them, and Lola is the best of the best. So when Lola starts catching feelings, I should walk away. Do I have the guts to do it?