Romancing the Rookie

Five years ago, Rowan Calloway was Hollywood's Ice Prince—until one photo burned his life to the ground.

Forced out of the closet by a leaked image, abandoned by the industry that made him, Rowan disappeared. Now he's playing college hockey at a small Northern California university under his legal name, invisible and determined to stay that way. No cameras. No fame. No one close enough to hurt him again.

Elliot Vega sees right through him.

A theatre student with more ambition than restraint, Elliot recognizes Rowan from across the rink on the first day of tryouts. What starts as research for his thesis on constructed identity—and inspiration for the closeted hockey player he's been cast to portray on stage—becomes something far more dangerous: obsession. The more Elliot watches, the more he wants. Not the ghost of a celebrity. The real person hiding underneath.

But when Elliot's secret research is exposed, Rowan is forced to confront the one thing he feared more than the spotlight: someone who's already seen everything and stayed.

Then Hollywood comes calling. A seven-figure movie deal. An ex-lover who never defended him but suddenly wants him back. And a choice that will determine whether Rowan keeps hiding—or finally lets himself be seen by the one person who's been watching all along.

Romancing the Rookie is a dual-POV M/M college hockey romance about the masks we build, the people brave enough to look behind them, and what happens when being known becomes more terrifying than being forgotten.

Tales from the Crease, Book 2