Nebraska Knights Holiday Hockey Romance: The Knights are the toughest team on the ice, but out of uniform, they’re guys with hearts of gold. Mostly. Some are grumps and others are secret cinnamon rolls, but all of them will find love no matter the holiday.
Does Cupid have a nice list? Never mind. Forget it. I’m breaking up with Valentine’s Day.
It started innocently enough with a harmless inquiry about a cute guy at a coffee shop. The goal was to get back in the romance game. The search turned into a social media frenzy. #DesperatelySeekingDane was not available. Talk about a buzzkill.
Just when I thought things couldn’t become more dramatic, because of my five minutes of online fame, a TV production company reached out to me as a last-minute contestant in a dating contest. It was an instant yes because one of the three bachelors is a major movie star and my lifelong crush.
Here's the twist: I’m matched with the third-place prize, a daredevil hockey player I can't stand. Let’s just say we have a brief but storied history involving shrill whistles, spilled coffee, and a bloody incident in an elevator.
However, turns out the date is only the opening act. We end up in each other’s debt, resulting in a meet-the-parents situation. But we kind of hit it off. As things heat up between us, sparks fly and the ice begins to melt. Can I be falling for the guy I loathe?
We weren’t supposed to kiss...again. Is it still a second chance when our first one was a secret?
Rewind: In high school, I was Little Miss Brainy Rebel Girl to my twin’s athletic Mr. Popularity. That also meant I avoided wading into the dating pool. Like a shark, it didn’t help that my protective brother probably scared away potential suitors.
Fast forward: He’s engaged, but our parents won’t let him tie the knot until I find a boyfriend. Now, he has guys lining up to date me. This only becomes an issue when his best friend, Redd, gets a hero’s welcome when he returns to play hockey for the Nebraska Knights.
Pause: Little does my brother know that Redd and I kissed on a senior year camping trip. After that, I swore off smooching forever. But I get looped into helping him fundraise for our old high school’s hockey team, and he and his adorable secret move into my grandmother’s old house.
We end up spending a lot of time together. Making pancakes, playing flashlight tag, going to the lake... The problem is we despise each other, or so I thought. Will things between us fizzle or will there be fireworks this 4th of July?
They say love is messy. Turns out friendship is too, especially when you’re stranded in a cabin with your best friend and hearts are on thin ice.
Teddy
I’ve heard that men and women can’t be friends without it becoming something more. Harlow and I put that theory in the penalty box, thank you very much. She laughs at my jokes, secretly admires my hockey butt, trusts me with her biggest fear (it’s safe with me). In turn, she knows everything about me. Well, almost. There’s been a recent development. I’m gone for her. Down bad. Solid Crush. She lives rent free in my mind. I’ve caught feelings. This wouldn’t be a problem except, you know, the whole shattering our friendship thing.
Harlow
You know those days you want to erase? It went like this: my boyfriend broke up with me (it was overdue), and then I broke up with my job while at a work conference (it was mind-numbing). In an ironic twist, I won the raffle for a romantic getaway trip for two. Who else to bring other than my best friend who’ll gladly commiserate with me? He has a hockey event nearby, so it works out perfectly. Until we’re stranded in the cozy cabin together. There’s a blaze of attraction. A friendship-changing kiss.
What now? Do we hit the reset button? Salvage what we had? Pretend it never happened? These are things I’d talk to my bestie about, but I can’t because I’m head over heels for him.
Love at First Skate is part of the Love on Thin Ice sweet small town hockey romcom series and ties into the Nebraska Knights series.
I have a kiss hangover. Is that normal for the first time?
My love life is a big bah humbug. When a blind date goes bad, a Knight in ugly Christmas sweater armor swoops in and rescues me with a kiss in a very public way.
That wouldn’t be a problem except Pierre plays for the team my father coaches and has a reputation for being the biggest flirt on ice. If you ask me, all hockey players belong in the penalty box.
Except, I wouldn't object to a second kiss or lessons. Dare I say Pierre is a pro? Could have something to do with him being French Canadian. However, his rescue PDA lands him in trouble with the team.
We make an agreement: he teaches me how to kiss and I play the role of the girl he can’t get over. For those of you not up against the glass, he pretends to be falling over his skates for me and I pretend to hate him.
Then a winter storm leaves us stranded and it’s up to us to help save the Christmas Market. Seems like our game of fake-it is turning into a make-out. I mean make-it.
But what’ll happen when the holidays are over and we go back to our real lives? I don’t want to land on Santa’s naughty list, so I won’t tell a lie. Pierre had me at that first mistletoe moment. I just hope he feels the same.
I believe in love at first sight, but is there such a thing as a fake fiancé at first sight?
As the only remaining single woman in a family of gold-digging, marry-rich overachievers, I get desperate and declare that the Viking-Highlander hockey star at my cousin’s wedding is my fiancé. (We’d kept it hush-hush to not steal her thunder. Wink, wink.)
He's either been hit in the head with a puck or he's super stubborn because he refuses to play his part until my mother gives him a disapproving down-the-nose look. (This ignites a fire in his green eyes, which makes the butterflies in me dance a jig.)
Just when I think it’s time to return to the dating board, he makes a proposal to go along with my scheme. Not that kind of proposal, though I wouldn’t object—the goalie is dreamy in a Northern Lights fantastical way. (He needs to get married to make good on a family promise for his inheritance.)
The grump has mojo, but fortunately, I’m made of sunshine and moxie. With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we need all the good luck we can get because my family is on to me, claiming my fake fiancé has a secret.
So do I...and it’s that I’m smitten. He can deny his feelings until the end of the rainbow, but that’s a load of blarney and I’m going to prove it, even if it involves some shamrock shenanigans.
