The Faceoff (Whitmore U Book One)

Sloane Beckett does not need saving, thank you. She needs her scholarship intact, her bookshop shifts uninterrupted, and Beau Sorensen to stop looking at her like she's a puzzle he's decided to solve. He's the Whitmore Ravens' golden boy — captain, first-round lock, the kind of easy grin that makes a whole room lean in. She's the theater major with a sharp tongue and a short list of people she lets close, and he is not on it. He was never going to be on it. Then they both get cornered by exes who can't take a hint, and Beau proposes a fix: one fake relationship, clear terms, mutual benefit. Six weeks of holding hands in public and pretending not to count the days. She gives him a list of rules. Rule one: no touching unless someone's watching. He breaks it constantly. The problem isn't that Beau is everything she swore off — privileged, adored, impossible to dislike for the right reasons. The problem is that he keeps showing up. On her worst days. In her bookshop. In the quiet she's spent years building so no one could find her in it. He hands her coffee she didn't ask for and looks at her like the version of herself she performs for everyone else isn't the one he's interested in. And the worst part — the genuinely unforgivable part — is that somewhere between the fake smiles and the team dinners and the snow coming down over Haven, the boy who has everything starts falling for the girl who's determined to need no one. Sloane built her whole life so that being left would never break her again. She just never planned on someone who refuses to leave. Perfect for readers who love slow-burn hockey romance with banter that bites, a captain worth swooning over, and a found family you'll want to move in with.