Collide

The first book in a contemporary New Adult romance series set at the fictional Dalton University, the story follows Summer Preston, an ambitious senior psychology student, and Aiden Crawford, the captain of the college hockey team, as their forced partnership ignites a relationship neither of them planned.

Summer has spent years avoiding hockey because the sport reminds her of her father, Lukas Preston, a two-time Stanley Cup champion and NHL legend who chose his career over his family. She keeps his identity a secret from most people. When her grad school advisor, Dr. Laura Langston, insists that Summer's empirical research must focus on hockey or she will lose her spot in the application process for Dalton's prestigious sports psychology master's program, Summer has no real alternative. Langston has an unmatched record for placing students and selects which student is eligible for a competitive co-op placement with Team USA, making her impossible to replace as an advisor. Summer reluctantly agrees and confides her frustration in her roommate and best friend, Amara Evans.

Meanwhile, Aiden deals with the fallout from a reckless party at the hockey house that resulted in vandalism to a campus monument. He takes sole blame before the team, reasoning that his strong record will earn him a lighter punishment. Coach Kilner gives him a choice between probation, which could jeopardize the entry-level contract Aiden has signed with the NHL's Toronto Thunder, and community service. Kilner also warns Aiden that he is burning out from practicing seven days a week. Kilner pairs the two problems together: Summer will study athlete burnout with Aiden as her subject, and his cooperation counts as community service.

Their first meeting is hostile. Aiden dismisses Summer's research, and she calls him an asshole. His best friend and teammate, Kian Ishida, privately tells Summer that Aiden once secretly paid Kian's tuition after Kian's father died, disguising the kindness as financial aid. Moved by Kian's testimony and left without alternatives after Langston rejects her alternate proposal, Summer agrees to work with Aiden. At their first session, she challenges him to a skating race, tricking him by faking a fall and sprinting to the finish line, winning a bet that requires him to comply with her plans without complaint.

Their dynamic shifts as sessions progress. Summer arranges alternative workouts to ease Aiden's rigid training, and Aiden begins driving her home and running alongside her at night for safety. During one session, Summer receives a distressing call from her father; Aiden holds her hand in silence. He starts showing up at her dorm with takeout, and they fall into a routine of watching a Turkish drama series together. Tensions build when Aiden grows jealous of Summer's interactions with Connor Atwood, the football team's quarterback. He confronts Summer's ex-boyfriend, Donny Rai, about Donny's patronizing criticism of her work, but the confrontation backfires when Donny maneuvers himself into a student aide position on her paper. Aiden discovers Summer is planning a mental health initiative for campus athletes and promises to bring the hockey team to support it.

Aiden takes Summer to a bar as her wingman, but the evening exposes his feelings. On the drive home, he stops the truck and asks her to dance to "Tennessee Whiskey," his parents' first dance song. Summer kisses the corner of his mouth, their first gesture of physical affection. A missed appointment with the campus sports psychologist later creates a rift when Aiden loses his phone and cannot complete a critical test for Summer's research. He makes it right by independently completing the test at a clinic and rushing to her dorm in full hockey gear minutes after winning a game. Summer patches a cut on his face with a cartoon Band-Aid, and the tender moment marks a turning point.

The mental health carnival Summer organizes succeeds, largely because Aiden cuts power to the hockey house to redirect partygoers. But when Summer sees another girl pull Aiden onto the Ferris wheel before Summer can ride with him, she impulsively kisses Connor. Aiden storms to her dorm that night, and their confrontation turns intensely physical. He tells her that the next time they are together, it will be because she comes to him knowing he is the only one who can satisfy her.

Encouraged by Amara and her roommate Cassidy "Cassie" Carter, twin sister of junior hockey player Cole Carter, Summer goes to the hockey house and tells Aiden she wants him. They agree to a friends-with-benefits arrangement. After an initial false start, they sleep together for the first time, though Summer maintains a strict no-sleepover rule to preserve emotional distance.

The walls crumble when Summer tells Aiden that her father is Lukas Preston and that she was the unplanned baby who nearly derailed his career. Aiden shares his own pain: His parents died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver when he was 13, on their way to watch him play, and he carries deep guilt. Summer tells him he feels like home, and for the first time, she stays the night.

When Donny predicts Aiden will discard her, a shaken Summer suggests they see other people. Aiden reluctantly agrees but sends teammates to sabotage her date. Summer cannot go through with it; she runs through the rain to the hockey house and tells Aiden it was always going to be him. They become an official couple, and during a hotel getaway, Aiden tells Summer he loves her. She says the words back freely.

When Summer is waitlisted from Dalton's master's program, Cole discovers that Donny and Langston are in a romantic relationship and that Langston has been manipulating admissions to favor Donny. Summer and her friends break into Langston's office to access incriminating evidence and schedule an email exposing the affair to the dean and the student body. Summer loses her student ID during the break-in, and Donny finds it, threatening her with expulsion.

Aiden goes to Dean Hutchins and confesses to the break-in himself, taking full responsibility to shield Summer. Coach Kilner suspends him for the rest of the season, including the Frozen Four, the national college hockey championship. Summer is furious, telling him he cannot sacrifice his dreams for hers, but Aiden responds that she is his future. Langston is fired, Donny is removed from campus, and Summer is accepted into the program.

Summer's father, who has been rebuilding their relationship, leverages his friendship with the dean to reverse Aiden's suspension on the morning of the championship. Summer arranges for Aiden's grandparents to attend, the first time he has had family in the stands since his parents died. Dalton defeats Yale 4–3 in overtime on Aiden's game-winning goal. Afterward, Summer invites her father to a redo dinner, and he promises to try to be the dad she deserves.

An epilogue set nine years later shows Summer and Aiden married in Toronto with a three-year-old daughter, Aurora, and a second child on the way. Summer has earned her Ph.D. and opened a sports clinic; Aiden plays for the Thunder and has won a Stanley Cup. Lukas is now an active grandfather, evidence that the father-daughter relationship has healed. A bonus scene depicts Aiden's proposal and their courthouse wedding.