Cherry on Ice

Briggs Maxwell is the hockey player the Charlotte Kings like to put in front of a camera: fast, easy to like, and polished enough to make a struggling franchise look better than a team on the wrong side of the playoff line.

In a contract year, he is starting to suspect he may spend his whole career being useful without ever being necessary.

When his younger brother dies, Briggs flies home to Vegas to bury a man he has not spoken to in two years.

Evie Sutton, a fine arts graduate who digs graves for her father's funeral home, has buried much of her town and most of her feelings, and she has no idea what to do with a famous hockey player standing in that same place.

Briggs must return for the rest of the season and leave his stroke-recovering father behind, so Evie agrees to help for five months, a paycheck, and two thousand miles of distance.

He has always left before anyone could ask him to stay, and she has never asked anyone for anything, which works only until the arrangement stops feeling simple.