False Assist

The first time Callan Mercer looked at me across the rink, cameras were flashing, people were smiling, and everyone wanted the clean version of the story.
I should have known there was no clean version.

At Northlake University, hockey is more than a sport. It is power, money, reputation, family legacy, and a frozen stage where one mistake can become a scandal before the final horn. I came to the rink with a recorder, a leaking boot, and a need to prove I belonged in sports media. I did not come looking for Callan Mercer, the golden college hockey star with a damaged public image, a famous last name, and eyes that looked too tired for someone everybody called lucky.
Then the clip went viral.

Then the adults in charge decided a fake relationship could fix him.
And somehow, I became the girl holding his hand in public while privately digging into the old story our fathers buried.
The rules were simple: fake dates, controlled appearances, no surprise kisses, no private feelings, no lies in direct quotes.
We broke the rules slowly.

Callan was supposed to be my access to the story. I was supposed to be his proof that he was stable, charming, and safe for scouts, donors, and cameras. But the closer I got to him, the more I saw the man under the jersey: the son crushed by a father’s unfinished dream, the teammate who protected everyone else first, the boy who had been turned into evidence long before I met him.

And the deeper I dug, the more I realized the scandal was not just about Callan.
It was about my father.
His father.
A missing page.
A coach with too much power.

And a university willing to sacrifice anyone to protect the story it wanted told.
Now I have to choose between the truth that could launch my career and the man who became real when everything between us was supposed to be fake.

If you love fake dating with real feelings, college hockey heat, forbidden access, family secrets, high stakes scandal, slow burn tension, and a heroine who refuses to stay silent when the truth gets dangerous, this is the book you do not want to miss.

READ THE BOOK and find out what happens when the fake assist becomes the only real thing left on the ice