Play with Me

Play with Me, the fourth installment in the Playing for Keeps hockey romance series, follows Garrett Andersen, a right-winger for the Vancouver Vipers, and Jennie Beckett, younger sister of team captain Carter Beckett, as they navigate a secret friends-with-benefits arrangement that deepens into love.

At Carter's wedding to Olivia, Garrett struggles to hide his attraction to Jennie. Their chemistry is visible to everyone, and Adam Lockwood, the team's goalie, warns Garrett to stay away. When Jennie pulls Garrett onto the dance floor and Carter spots them, Garrett panics and shoves her away. The night ends with him retreating to Emily, a neighbor he occasionally sleeps with.

Jennie turns twenty-four and receives a condo on the twenty-first floor of Garrett's building as a gift from Carter, who announces that Garrett will look out for her from the penthouse. The arrangement irritates Jennie, especially after she sees Garrett leaving Emily's apartment. That night, Jennie and her mother, Holly, grieve together over Jennie's father, who was killed by a drunk driver eight years earlier. Jennie moves in on the anniversary of his death, a day she shares with Hank, an eighty-four-year-old blind man who became part of their family after saving Carter from drunk driving the night their father died.

Garrett surprises Jennie in the lobby with coffee, sensing a difficult day. Later, Jennie tears through moving boxes searching for Princess Bubblegum, a pink stuffed bunny her father gave her, and a gold heart locket containing a photo of the two of them. She finds neither. When Garrett arrives to help at Carter's request, he opens a box labeled "toys" expecting the stuffed animal and discovers Jennie's collection of sex toys instead. A large dildo slaps him across the face, and Jennie shoves him out, though she later whispers a thank-you through the cracked door for the hug he gave her earlier.

Jennie's dance teacher recommends her for a faculty position at the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto, but Jennie is uncertain whether professional dance is the future she wants. Her dance partner at Simon Fraser University, Simon, forcibly kisses her during an after-hours rehearsal; Jennie knees him and twists her ankle escaping. Her bond with Garrett grows through small moments: She fixes his tie before a game, a skill learned from watching her father dress for work, and drives him home after a concussion. At her door, he calls her "sunshine" affectionately, and the nickname sticks. Their connection deepens when Carter asks Garrett to keep Jennie company while the team is away. Over Thai food and The Lion King, Jennie reveals she does not drink because of how her father died. Garrett silently switches to Gatorade, reflecting on his own father's past alcohol addiction. Playful wrestling leads to a heated first kiss. Jennie panics and flees, but Garrett follows. Through a series of charged encounters, they establish a friends-with-benefits arrangement with rules: no intercourse (Jennie reveals it has been years since she has been intimate), no sleepovers, exclusivity, and oral sex remains on the table. Garrett senses her reluctance stems from a traumatic past experience and commits to respecting her boundaries.

Their arrangement quickly expands beyond the physical. Jennie confesses her real dream is not the Toronto position but opening a children's dance studio in Vancouver where she can teach without the toxic culture she endured. Outside their bubble, Jennie faces social isolation. A fellow dance student named Krissy excludes her from group outings and makes cutting remarks. A barista asks her out only to reveal interest in meeting Carter, referencing Jennie's "work," a veiled allusion to a leaked sex tape. Over Christmas, Garrett visits his family in Nova Scotia and shares his father's history of alcohol addiction with Jennie over late-night calls. On Christmas morning, he video-calls Jennie and directs her to gifts he left under his tree. Moved nearly to tears, Jennie says she cannot remember the last time someone outside her family gave her a gift. Days later, Garrett returns early and surprises her by performing the elaborate Parent Trap handshake she once shared daily with her father, which he learned for her after she told him it would be her one Christmas wish.

On a date, Jennie freezes when her high school ex-boyfriend Kevin appears at a movie theater and touches her chin. Garrett shoves him away. Back at Garrett's apartment, Jennie offers to have sex, but Garrett declines, recognizing she is acting out of vulnerability. When he innocently records a video of her sleeping, Jennie panics and storms out. She returns at dawn and eventually reveals the full story: In high school, Kevin pressured her into having sex while she was drunk and grieving her father. He told her to "scream for them" as his friends burst in recording. The video spread online as "Carter Beckett's sister's sex tape." She lost her boyfriend, friends, and sense of safety in one night. Carter flew home, confronted Kevin, and pulled Jennie out of school. Garrett promises to keep her safe, and Jennie begins sleeping over, breaking their no-sleepover rule.

The secret unravels when Garrett's father loses his job and walks out with a bottle of whiskey. Garrett's young sisters call in a panic while he is on a plane without Wi-Fi. Already rattled by Carter's claim that Jennie does not want to be tied down, Garrett arrives at school to find Simon's hands on Jennie during a rehearsal and lashes out, telling her their arrangement is "not enough for me anymore." He flies to Nova Scotia and finds his father at a diner with the whiskey bottle still sealed. On Valentine's Day, Garrett watches Jennie's recital. During the final number, Simon kisses Jennie without her consent onstage. Jennie slaps him backstage and ends their partnership. That night, Garrett confesses his love and presents a sunflower locket etched with "You are my sunshine" containing a photo of Jennie and her father, along with Princess Bubblegum, which he found buried in snow near Holly's house after months of searching. Jennie tells him she loves him too, and they have sex for the first time.

Carter discovers the relationship when he walks into Jennie's apartment and finds them together. He refuses all contact for six days and moves Garrett to the second line as punishment. Jennie flies to Toronto for her interview but realizes the controlling culture there echoes everything she wants to escape. A call from Hank helps her see that the people in her life love her for who she is, not because of Carter. She flies home, arriving just after Olivia gives birth to a girl named Ireland, after Hank's late wife. During practice, Garrett and Carter drop their gloves and fight on the ice. Garrett shouts that he loves Jennie and that Carter is hurting her by shutting her out. Carter admits he was afraid Jennie would not need him anymore. They reconcile, and Carter apologizes to Jennie privately, acknowledging he failed to communicate. Jennie tells him she will always need him but that Garrett is also her best friend.

In an epilogue set in July, Garrett and Jennie move into a house in North Vancouver. Garrett has secretly converted a storefront into a dance studio for Jennie and carries an engagement ring: Holly's own ring from Jennie's father, engraved with J+G alongside the original H+T. Garrett tells Jennie she will one day be his wife. Carter catches them in an intimate moment and runs downstairs screaming for Olivia. Jennie shrugs and says, "Oops."