Off-Ice Collision

Vaughn

One split-second accident shattered everything. My hockey career? Gone. My identity? A ghost. Two years later and I’m still angry at the world, at myself, at the game that used to mean everything.

So I run to the only place I know I can have a moment of peace. To my parents" empty lake house, where I can be alone with my bitterness. No questions. No pity. No one.

Until she shows up.

London Hayes—the girl I pushed away, the one I never really got over—is back in town. And somehow, she sees through the wreckage I’ve become.

But I’m not the man she once loved. And I won’t let her ruin herself trying to save me.

London

It’s been years since I saw Vaughn Carter. Now he’s back… but he’s not the same. The boy with the easy smile and endless charm has been replaced by a man carrying too much pain and not enough hope.

He thinks he’s broken, but I know buried inside is the man I once loved. He’s worth fighting for—even if he won’t fight for himself. Even if it means risking the heart that was never mine in the first place.