He is the team's golden boy who has a broken foot and whose contract expires this year. She is the trainer whose job it is to say no to him, and for the following six months both of them will be unable to leave.

Quinn Abbott has rules. Rule one: the athlete's health outranks the athlete's opinion. Rule two: never get attached to a patient. Rule three, written specifically for the San Antonio Outlaws' star running back: do not, under any circumstances, fall for the smile.

Grant Hale has never met a door that stayed closed to him. Then a broken foot puts his season, his contract, and his entire identity on an exam table, and the trainer running his rehab turns out to be the one person in Texas immune to his charm. She has a clipboard, a timeline, and zero interest in his comeback-of-the-year plans. He has a comeback clock, a stubborn streak, and a growing problem: the best part of his ruined season is the hour a day she spends telling him no.

Every morning, the same training room. Every session, her hands on the injury that could end him. Team flights, hotel treatment tables, a rehab schedule written into his contract and hers. They can't avoid each other, and it's starting to show. Falling for your trainer is against the rules. Falling for your patient can end a career. And somewhere between the countdown on the whiteboard and the question he shouldn't ask, two people who've spent their lives carrying everything alone have to learn what it costs to let someone in.

Neither of them stands a chance, and the whole season is watching.

Tropes & tone:

• Slow burn — the wait is the point

• Athlete × athletic trainer, forced proximity (three sessions a week, no escape)

• Forbidden — he's her patient, and one signature could end her career

• Golden retriever hero who falls first and earns it

• Found family — the Outlaws locker room, opinions included

• Open door · guaranteed HEA · standalone

Book Two of the San Antonio Outlaws series. Each book follows a different couple