Reese Calloway doesn't do second chances. Three years after a betrayal that ended her photography career and gutted her confidence, she keeps her world small, controlled, and safely closed. She photographs real estate listings and sleeps with her phone off. She trusts no one.
Cole Mercer is the most hated man in professional hockey and for good reason. His reputation is built on aggression, rule-breaking, and a reckless trade request that shattered his team's championship run. Now he's been suspended, publicly humiliated, and dumped into a court-ordered anger management program with a PR-mandated media project: a documentary that needs a photographer.
They meet in the worst possible way. What starts as a forced, hostile partnership becomes something neither of them can explain, predict, or afford. Because the closer Reese gets to the real Cole Mercer, the more she realizes the story the world is telling about him is wrong. And the closer Cole gets to Reese, the more he understands that the greatest damage in life isn't the kind you see in headlines, it's the quiet kind, carried alone for years.
But when someone is standing behind the lens, the truth has a way of coming into focus.
And not everyone is ready to be seen.
