The Minnesota Mammoths' goalie just became her accidental roommate. There's only one problem: he's also the subject of her book — and he doesn't know it yet.

My sublet is a scam.

I'm standing in a Minneapolis hallway at midnight, soaking wet, down $1,800, and the apartment I rented doesn't exist. The man who answers 4B is shirtless, half-asleep, and way too tall to be looking at me with that much patience for someone who just pounded on his door.

Easton McKenzie is a professional hockey goalie. He gives me his couch for the night without hesitating. One night becomes a week. A week becomes stay until you find a place. He makes me coffee every morning — oat milk, three sugars, on the counter before I'm awake — and never once asks how I take it. He just knows.

I'm in Minneapolis to photograph the Anonymous Maker — a mystery craftsman whose hand-built furniture has the design world obsessed. No one knows who he is. I need him for chapter six of my book, and I'm not leaving without him.

Then I notice the sawdust on my roommate's sleeves. The closed door at the end of the hall. The joinery on his coffee table that matches every piece I've photographed across town.

Oh.

Oh no.

Now I'm sharing a bathroom and a secret with the man I'm supposed to be professionally documenting. He lets me into the workshop at 2am to photograph his hands. He cooks for me after bad games without making it a thing. The line between subject and roommate blurred two weeks ago. The line between roommate and something else is blurring now — and he touches me like I'm something he built. Carefully. Like he already knows where I'll break.

I have a flight to Portland in eight weeks and a perfect record of leaving before anyone asks me to stay.

He has a perfect record of never asking.

We're going to be fine.

Shots and Saves is a standalone hockey romance in the Puck Bunny series.