Y/n is determined to prove herself as a serious journalist, and covering Blackwood University’s hockey team is supposed to be her big break. But working alongside Ethan Hayes - the teams captain, campus favorite, and the most frustrating person she’s ever met - quickly turns the semester into a disaster. After a past media scandal destroyed Ethan’s trust in reporters, he makes it very clear that he wants nothing to do with y/n. Unfortunately for both of them, late-night interviews, away games, and chaotic hockey house parties keep throwing them together. The more they clash, the harder it becomes to ignore the tension building between them. Because somewhere between arguments, jealousy, and lingering stares, hatred starts feeling dangerously close to something else.
At Briar University, hockey isn’t just a sport—it’s a social hierarchy, a lifestyle, and the center of campus chaos. Y/N has spent her time here staying invisible in all the right ways: guarded, sarcastic, and impossible to fully read. After learning what happens when trust is misplaced, she keeps people at a distance and never lets anyone get close enough to matter. That changes when she’s pulled into Briar’s hockey world through her friends—and meets Garrett Graham. Garrett is everything Briar revolves around: the hockey captain, the golden boy, the guy everyone knows and wants. He’s used to being in control of every room he walks into and every reaction he gets. Except Y/N doesn’t react the way everyone else does. She doesn’t fall for the charm, doesn’t soften under attention, and doesn’t make things easy. Instead, she meets him with sarcasm, resistance, and an unreadability that throws him off in a way he can’t ignore. What starts as tension and constant back-and-forth slowly turns into something heavier—late-night conversations, forced proximity, and moments neither of them should be thinking about for as long as they do. But both of them are built on avoidance. Garrett hides behind confidence and control. Y/N hides behind humor and distance. And when feelings start slipping through the cracks, neither of them knows how to stay without risking everything they’ve built to protect themselves. At Briar, being seen is easy. Being known is where it gets dangerous. And falling for someone isn’t the problem. It’s what happens when neither of them can hide anymore.
Y/n has one rule: stay focused. Between early mornings on the ice and the pressure of chasing something bigger then herself, she doesn’t have time for distractions-especially not the kind that come with complicated feelings and even worse timing. Logan Pierce doesn’t do distractions either. As captain of Ridgeway University’s hockey team, his life is built on discipline, control, and not giving anyone a reason to question him. He keeps things simple. Structured. Predictable. They were never supposed to get involved. But between shared spaces, late nights, and moments that last just a second too long, distance becomes harder to maintain- and walking away isn’t as easy as it should be. Because the problem isn’t just that this could ruin everything. It’s that neither of them is sure they want it to stop.
When your parents move overseas, you’re forced to leave your life behind and spend your freshman year living with your Aunt Claire in Stars Hollow, Connecticut—a town where privacy doesn’t exist, coffee is considered a necessity, and everyone somehow knows your name before you’ve introduced yourself. You tell yourself it’s temporary. Just one year. Then you’ll leave. At least, that was the plan. Between movie nights with Lorelai and Rory, music-filled afternoons with Lane, endless coffee runs to Luke’s Diner, and a town that slowly starts to feel like home, Stars Hollow becomes harder to leave than you ever imagined. Especially after meeting Ethan Hart. The quiet bookstore employee with messy hair, sharp wit, and enough secrets to fill every shelf in Hart’s Books. Neither of you are looking for anything serious. Neither of you are interested in getting attached. But somewhere between late-night conversations, stolen glances across crowded rooms, and the feeling of being understood for the first time, everything begins to change. Maybe some people are only meant to be temporary. And maybe some people feel like autumn—warm, familiar, and impossible to forget.