Rewind It Back

This contemporary romance follows Rio DeLuca, a 27-year-old defenseman for the Chicago Raptors hockey team, and Hallie Hart, a 25-year-old interior design intern, as they reconnect after a painful six-year separation rooted in family betrayal, illness, and choices made too young.

Rio is the only single member of his tight-knit friend group of nine, which consists of four couples: his best friend Indy and her husband Ryan Shay, captain of Chicago's professional basketball team; his teammate and team captain Evan Zanders and his wife Stevie; Kai Rhodes and his wife Miller; and Kai's brother Isaiah Rhodes and his wife Kennedy. Rio has spent six years unable to form a deep connection with anyone, though he lets his friends believe he is simply bad at dating rather than admit he never moved on from the woman he loved as a teenager.

Flashbacks trace Rio and Hallie's history from childhood. When Hallie's family moves next door to Rio's in Boston, eleven-year-old Hallie and twelve-year-old Rio become fast friends. Hallie introduces a practice central to their bond: she picks a song to mark each important moment so she can "rewind it back" and relive it, compiling yearly mixtapes signed with an "H" and a hand-drawn heart representing her last name. Rio develops a ritual of covering a small imperfection in the drawn heart with his fingertip. Over the years, their friendship deepens into a secret romance hidden from Hallie's protective older brother, Luke. They share a first kiss at sixteen, exchange declarations of love at eighteen, and lose their virginity to each other on prom night.

Everything collapses the summer Rio is drafted at twenty-one. Within two weeks, Hallie learns her father has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, and discovers that her own mother and Rio's father are having an affair. Her mother pressures her into silence by arguing the revelation could endanger her father's health. When Rio's mother, Mia, discovers the affair independently, she learns Hallie knew and manipulates Rio into cutting ties with everyone involved. Rio, whose understanding of love has been shattered by his parents' divorce, ends things with Hallie and leaves for Chicago. Hallie drops out of college, moves to Minnesota, and becomes her father's primary caregiver for years, secretly taking out loans to cover expenses she tells her father are paid by the treatment program.

The present-day story begins when Rio goes on another disappointing date. His neighbor Wren Wilder, a graduate student whose brother Cruz owns the adjacent house, mentions she is getting a roommate: the intern who led her home renovation. Rio, privately considering whether to test free agency and sign with the Boston Bobcats to be closer to his mother, asks for the designer's contact information to upgrade his own house.

Hallie has moved to Chicago to intern at the luxury firm Tyler Braden Interiors, working days at the firm and nights bartending to manage her debt. When a date brings her unexpectedly to a Raptors game, she locks eyes with Rio through the plexiglass and flees the arena. That same night, she arrives at Wren's house to move in, and Rio spots her. The coincidences compound: Hallie is his new neighbor and the designer assigned to his renovation. Both insist the arrangement cannot work. When the lost project threatens her position at the firm, Hallie begs Rio to reconsider. He refuses at first, admitting their proximity already feels dangerously familiar. After Indy challenges him to consider whether he can live with not helping Hallie, he relents, texting: "You start tomorrow."

Their first consultation devolves into emotional chaos as Rio swings between warmth and hostility. When Hallie draws her signature heart on a notebook and Rio instinctively covers the imperfect tail with his finger, the memories overwhelm them both. Hallie walks out, telling him she would rather lose the job than endure his unpredictability. Rio waits up past two in the morning to apologize, and they agree to try being friends, though both know the word is inadequate.

The professional relationship thaws into something deeper. Rio makes Hallie lattes, plays songs from their past over the house speakers, and blocks her from a mysterious closet in his bedroom. He discovers her bartending job when his teammates choose her bar for a postgame celebration and begins a routine of visiting each night, driving her home, and leaving coffee on her doorstep. After an evening babysitting his friends' children fills his house with domestic warmth, Rio catches Hallie on the lawn and whispers that he missed her. On her porch after another late-night drive weeks later, Hallie pulls him down by his shirt and presses a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth, echoing their very first kiss. Rio kisses her fully and tells her not to overthink it.

When Rio insists they meet on the road to review designs in person, the evening turns intimate: room service, a shared bed, and a tentative conversation about trying again. Hallie hesitates, saying he left when she needed him to stay and there is still so much he does not know. While Rio is away, Hallie discovers the contents of his hidden closet: every mixtape and CD she gave him from ages eleven to nineteen, all in cracked cases from overuse. The discovery proves he has been rewinding their moments for six years.

After Rio confronts his father over the phone, recognizing how the affair warped his understanding of love, he learns Hallie's father has been hospitalized. He catches the first flight to Minnesota and arrives at the hospital, where Hallie breaks down in his arms, admitting she has never had anyone show up for her. Tests confirm her father is not relapsing. Back in Chicago, in Rio's bedroom, Hallie reveals the devastating overlap: Her father was diagnosed two weeks before Rio left, and within twenty-four hours she discovered the affair. Rio is gutted. He pays off both her loans and buys her a car without asking, arguing he would have handled the finances had he known. Hallie quits her bartending job.

At a gathering with the women in his friend group, Rio tells the full story. They point out that Hallie has already forgiven him; the only person who has not is Rio himself, and his self-punishment is also punishing her. He drives to Hallie's house, declares she has always been his person, and they reunite fully. They have sex for the first time in six years and reveal, with mutual shock, that neither has been with anyone else. Hallie traces the tattoo over Rio's heart: a replica of her hand-drawn heart, inked three years into their separation.

At a dinner with the full group, Rio reveals he changed his jersey number from 83 (August 3, his birthday) to 38 (March 8, Hallie's birthday). Later, Hallie overhears Rio telling Indy he plans to sign with a team and that his mother's disapproval is tearing him apart. She walks away before hearing the rest, assumes he means Boston, and resolves to fix his relationship with Mia herself. She flies to Boston and tells Mia the truth: She discovered the affair by accident when she found her own mother leaving Mr. DeLuca's bedroom. Mia apologizes, admits she manipulated Rio into choosing sides, and the two women reconcile.

Rio, planning to surprise Hallie for her birthday, learns she has flown to Boston. He rebooks his flight and arrives to find her and Mia watching television together. That night, on the roof between their childhood houses, Rio plays Hallie a playlist of songs from their important moments since reconnecting, mirroring the mixtapes she always made for him. The final song was playing when he signed his contract extension with the Chicago Raptors. He is staying in Chicago because Hallie is his home. She tells him she loves him; he says it back.

An epilogue two months later depicts a housewarming party for the completed renovation. Rio tells Hallie the house was always meant for her: a four-bedroom home matching the dream she once described. Hallie has earned a full-time position at the firm. Rio's mother attends and warmly reconnects with Hallie's father. Rio privately shows his friends an engagement ring he plans to present that night on the roof. The novel closes with Rio reflecting that the connection he spent six years searching for was always right next door.