Face Off

The first installment in the D.C. Stars series, the novel follows Emerson "Emmy" Hartwell, a left winger in the ECHL (the NHL's AA development league), as she receives an unexpected contract offer from the DC Stars, a struggling NHL team in their eighth consecutive losing season. The Stars need a replacement after their elite rookie, Finn Adams, tears his ACL, and Coach Brody Saunders is impressed by Emmy's talent. Emmy says goodbye to her best friend and teammate, Grady Whitlock, in San Diego and flies to DC, where she moves in with high school friend Piper Mitchell, who works in the Stars' broadcasting department. Piper briefs Emmy on the team, particularly its captain, Maverick Miller, known for his charitable energy and his notorious playboy lifestyle.

Maverick, introduced waking up hungover beside a woman whose name he cannot remember, embodies the careless persona that defines his off-ice reputation. His closest friend, defenseman Hudson Hayes, asks if he has watched the game tapes Coach sent of the new player, Emerson Hartwell. Maverick admits he has not. When he arrives at the arena for a scheduled skating session, he encounters Emmy near the players' entrance and, assuming she is a fan, invites her back to his apartment. She rebuffs him, telling him the only thing she wants to do with him is beat him on the ice. In the boardroom, Emmy reveals she is Emerson Hartwell. Coach Saunders reprimands Maverick for his disrespect and failure to prepare.

Despite the disastrous introduction, they take the ice together, and Emmy dominates, scoring on Maverick repeatedly. Their session establishes a dynamic of mutual antagonism threaded with reluctant admiration. At a press conference where Emmy signs her contract, a reporter dismisses her stats as impressive "for a female athlete." Maverick seizes the microphone and shuts down the remark, threatening to revoke the reporter's press access. Privately, he asks Emmy who made her doubt her accomplishments. She reveals an ex-boyfriend who told her she only received opportunities because she is a woman. Maverick responds with protective anger, declaring that he takes care of his people, which now includes her.

Emmy's integration is gradual. She earns an assist in her first game, bonds with Hudson, and begins spending time with Piper, Maven Wood (the team photographer and fiancée of Maverick's close friend Dallas Lansfield), and Lexi, the Stars' head athletic trainer. Maverick keeps drawing Emmy into the team's social life, particularly the Tuesday night dinners he hosts at his apartment. She resists but slowly warms. At a bar outing, Maverick buys her a jar of the expensive olives she likes for her martinis, a small gesture revealing his attentiveness.

After a tough loss in her first start, Emmy stays on the ice alone for hours replaying mistakes, a ritual she learned from her father. Maverick finds her, scolds her for skating without a helmet, and joins the session. He takes her to The Nook, a small diner where the owner, Darla, treats him like family. Over grilled cheese, they begin a "question of the day" game that becomes a running thread throughout the story, each exchange peeling back another layer of who they are.

On a road trip to Chicago, their tension boils over. Emmy tells Maverick to stop trying to be her friend, insisting she has been down this road before with a hockey player. Maverick fires back that her missed shots are hurting the team. The Stars lose badly that night. Maverick shows up at Emmy's hotel room to confront her about the game, and their argument turns into a kiss against the wall. Emmy sets the rules: It is a one-time thing. He leaves when they finish. They never speak of it again.

The agreement collapses immediately. They sleep together again in Boston, rationalizing that the team keeps winning after they hook up. Superstitious logic provides cover for a growing emotional connection neither is ready to name. They begin spending time together off the ice, sharing meals, playing pool, and exchanging increasingly personal questions. At the Stars' holiday charity gala, Maverick bids the highest amount at auction to win lunch with Emmy, pays a DJ a thousand dollars to play a slow song so they can dance, and sneaks her into a coat closet.

On New Year's Eve, Emmy visits Maverick's apartment, where he is watching June, Dallas's young daughter. After June falls asleep, they share their deepest wounds. Emmy reveals her parents divorced partly because her mother resented her devotion to hockey, and that her father was paralyzed from the waist down in a hockey accident a decade earlier. Maverick discloses that he grew up in foster care, cycling through eight families before aging out of the system. His pattern of one-night stands stems from a need to feel wanted briefly, controlling when he leaves rather than being left. Emmy holds him and tells him the right woman will never leave. They share their first full sleepover, marking a decisive shift in their dynamic.

When Emmy falls ill with food poisoning, Maverick breaks down her apartment door to check on her, washes her hair, changes her sheets, and stays until she falls asleep. The experience leads to an explicit conversation about exclusivity: They agree to sleep only with each other and to stop limiting their arrangement to road trips.

The relationship becomes official after the Stars' Heroes and Legends themed game night, when Maverick wears a custom jersey with Emmy's name, becoming the first teammate to publicly do so. In the arena hallway, he tells her he wants to be her boyfriend, and Emmy agrees. Maverick then arranges for Emmy's father, Alan, who uses a wheelchair, to attend a game in Detroit by renting an accessible van and booking a private suite. Emmy privately recognizes she is in love with Maverick. Alan asks Maverick how long he has been in love with his daughter, planting a seed Maverick is not yet ready to articulate.

When the Stars face the Wildebeests, Emmy learns her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, Cole Meyers, has been called up to play against them. She tells her teammates about Cole's demeaning comments about her talent and the threatening sexual remarks he made about her teammates. During the game, Hudson starts a fight with Cole, and Maverick enters to deliver a sustained beating, guaranteeing his own ejection. He is suspended for two games.

Coach Saunders tells Maverick that Toronto wants Emmy, Finn Adams (the injured rookie whose ACL tear originally opened Emmy's roster spot), and a first-round draft pick in exchange for star winger Justin Harper. Devastated, Maverick turns to his closest friends, who help him realize what Alan already pointed out: He is in love with Emmy.

Maverick goes to Emmy and tells her everything: the trade and his feelings. Emmy says she loves him too and has since he arranged for her father to attend the game in Detroit. Coach confirms the deal. Before Emmy leaves for Toronto, Maverick shows her the Hartwell Room, a full locker room he and Coach built for her at the Civic Center, the Stars' home arena, complete with a plaque bearing her name. Even though Emmy will not use the room herself, it will serve future female players. When Emmy arrives at her Toronto hotel, she finds Maverick already there; he took a private jet the moment she left for the airport.

An epilogue set one year later reveals that Emmy has signed a four-year contract with the Baltimore Sea Crabs, an NHL expansion team, allowing her to live with Maverick outside DC. At the Civic Center, Maverick lures her onto the ice under the pretense of a promotional photo and drops to one knee, framing the proposal as question number 500 in their long-running game. Emmy says yes. Their teammates, friends, and family erupt in celebration. Emmy reveals a new tattoo reading "mine" in Maverick's handwriting, while Maverick shows his own: "Emmy's pretty boy" across his heart in hers, permanent marks of the home they found in one another.