Offside With My Brother's Best Friend: A sweet small-town hockey romance (Pinebrook Romance Collection)

I was working a double at the diner while managing my son’s schedule and pretending my life is perfectly normal. Then Jack Donovan just waltzes back into town after years of radio silence.

You know Jack—former NHL defenseman, my brother's best friend, and the guy who once looked at me like I was the only person in the room.

Now he's retired, bought a house in Pinebrook, and casually declaring "I still do" like he didn't ghost me all those years ago.

Then my furnace dies in the middle of winter.

Suddenly, my son Owen and I are living under Jack's roof because there's literally nowhere else to go. I'm a single mom who runs on schedules and backup plans—not sharing a house with the one man I've trained myself not to need.

My overprotective brother? Convinced Jack will bail again.

My friends? Already planning the wedding.

And Jack? He's coaching Owen's hockey practice, cooking us breakfast, and making it impossible to ignore how right this feels.

The real question isn't whether Jack's serious.

It's whether I'm brave enough to let him stay when everything in me is bracing for him to leave.