Against the Boards: A fake dating, slow burn, low spice hockey romance

Emma Thompson is twenty-nine, and her older brother still has opinions about who she's allowed to want.

With four brothers, she's spent her whole life being the useful one in the family, doing everything for everyone else, and she’s had enough of it.

So when she finds Tyler Bowen's driver's license in a grocery store parking lot, she doesn't hand it in. Tyler’s the center of her brother's team, the definition of the word 'player,' and the one person her brother would never want her with.

Emma asks him to be her fake boyfriend for exactly one night, just to prove a point. Tyler says yes, because he needs the same favor for different reasons that have everything to do with his father.

But one night becomes a job offer. The job offer becomes a surprise road trip with a honeymoon suite, only one bed, and two people who have completely lost track of which parts of their lives were performances.

But Emma only chose Tyler to prove that she could. What happens when she wants him for real?

Fake dating · brother's teammate · found family · closed door

Book one of the Canadian Played series: eight interconnected standalones set in Calgary, Alberta. Every one closed door. Every one gives a happy ending