The Au Pair Affair

The second book in the Big Shots series follows Tallulah Aydin, a twenty-six-year-old aspiring marine biologist, and Burgess Abraham, a veteran professional hockey defenseman for the Boston Bearcats known to fans as "Sir Savage." Tallulah has agreed to work as a live-in au pair for Burgess's twelve-year-old daughter, Lissa, while pursuing her master's degree at Boston University. On the day she is supposed to move in, she sits paralyzed in a smoothie shop across the street, having just watched a viral video of Burgess breaking an opponent's nose. The clip amplifies a deep wariness of men rooted in a traumatic experience years earlier, and she decides to back out.

Before she can call, Burgess walks into the shop. He notices her unease and asks directly whether the video frightened her. Tallulah admits she has difficulty trusting her instincts about men and that the violent highlight prompted her to reconsider living with a near stranger. Rather than pressuring her, Burgess assures her his on-ice aggression does not reflect his off-ice character, offers to install locks on her bedroom door, and leaves. Learning her budget is only seven hundred dollars a month, he secretly arranges for her to rent a room in a luxury apartment belonging to Chloe, the future stepsister of his teammate Sig Gauthier, with Burgess covering the rent difference. When Chloe inadvertently reveals the arrangement, Tallulah refuses on principle but forms an instant friendship with Chloe.

Her opinion of the job shifts when she visits Burgess's apartment and finds him failing to French braid Lissa's hair before a volleyball game. Tallulah braids it expertly, gently reframes Lissa's anxiety about fitting in, and begins to see how much Burgess struggles to connect with his daughter. Over dinner she mediates a conflict when Burgess impulsively calls Lissa's school about perceived bullying, advising him to listen before acting.

That night on the rooftop garden, Tallulah discloses the source of her fear. During her final year of college, a childhood friend named Brett, who had been stalking her online for years, drugged her and locked her in his closet for nearly two days with the apparent intention of killing her. She freed herself by prying up a floorboard and striking him when he opened the door. Brett later died in prison, eliminating the physical threat but leaving Tallulah with persistent distrust. She tells Burgess she promised her sister Lara she would stop letting fear rule her life, but she has spent four years hiding in remote research internships. She also describes the postcards she sends Lara in Istanbul as placeholders for the adventurous life she promised but has not pursued. Burgess responds with steady empathy, telling her she already won by surviving. Reassured, Tallulah accepts the au pair position.

As she settles in, her bond with Lissa deepens and her attraction to Burgess intensifies. She discovers he has been concealing a painful lower back injury, afraid that seeking treatment will signal his decline. Burgess carries deep insecurities about aging and his failed marriage to Lissa's mother, Ashleigh, and has been overcompensating on the ice to prove he can still compete. Tallulah begins giving him nightly massages and persuades him to see a doctor, who diagnoses a muscle strain. On a Friday night out with classmates and Chloe, she freezes when a classmate named Finn pushes to share a cab home, claims her boyfriend is coming, and calls Burgess at two in the morning. He arrives immediately, and when she asks him to kiss her once to sell the ruse, the kiss escalates far beyond pretense. She proposes a reciprocal arrangement: Burgess will join her on adventures around Boston while she helps him relearn how to socialize. Around this time, their mutual friends Wells Whitaker and Josephine Doyle, the couple who originally introduced them, ask Tallulah and Burgess to serve as maid of honor and best man at their December wedding in Costa Rica.

Their connection deepens through encounters that blur the line between friendship and romance. At Jamaica Pond one night, physical intimacy escalates, but Burgess stops short of intercourse, insisting he wants strings, attachment, and exclusivity. At the Bearcats' season opener, Tallulah reassures him that even if he has lost a step, he had steps to spare, cutting through the self-doubt that has shadowed him. A turning point arrives when she confronts Finn at a coffee shop after he disparages Burgess; she demands an apology, and the confrontation marks a significant step in her recovery from trauma-induced passivity. That evening Burgess takes her to watch a Red Sox game from a rooftop, and they exchange personal histories.

Burgess arranges an after-hours visit to the New England Aquarium, knowing Tallulah's passion for marine life. Overwhelmed, she tells him she wants to be his girlfriend. Racing home, they are intercepted by Ashleigh, who is dropping Lissa off due to a family emergency. Lissa witnesses them kissing, erupts in tears, and screams at Tallulah, blaming her for destroying any chance of her parents reconciling. Tallulah leaves for Chloe's apartment despite Burgess's pleas.

Before the crisis can resolve, Burgess's season takes a devastating turn. During an away game in Pittsburgh, an opponent slams him into the boards, causing a slipped disc. Tallulah flies to the hospital, where Burgess, facing surgery for an artificial disc replacement, lashes out. He tells her he does not want her there and weaponizes her postcards by implying she always walks away from difficulty. When Tallulah tells him she loves him, his cruelty strikes at the core of her trauma, and she leaves.

After surgery, Burgess spends a week refusing rehab. His friends stage an intervention: Sig, Wells, and other teammates arrive in person, while Chloe calls to reveal that Tallulah has been taking solo adventures, proving she no longer needs a bodyguard. Lissa arrives last and tearfully asks when Tallulah is coming back, sharing that she has been cast as Juliet in her school play. Motivated by his daughter's plea, Burgess agrees to rehab, driven by the goal of winning Tallulah back at the Costa Rica wedding. During those same weeks, Tallulah completes her own healing. On a hot air balloon ride over New Hampshire, she releases her bag of postcards into the wind and calls Lara for the first time in years, fulfilling her promise.

Six weeks later, both arrive at the Costa Rica resort. Tallulah insists on being just friends, but Burgess signs up for the same zip-lining and cliff-diving excursions. On the cliff, he goes first to verify her safety and tells her that even if he has lost her, he will keep the lesson she taught him about embracing life. Behind a waterfall, they are intimate for the first time. Burgess tells her they belong to each other whether or not they end up together and leaves the decision in her hands.

At the rehearsal dinner, an older guest shows Tallulah a Sports Illustrated article about Burgess's rehab featuring a photograph of her picture pinned to the wall as his motivation. Burgess is quoted saying an incredible woman is healing him more than any medicine. Tallulah finds him outside and tells him she wants to come home permanently. He pulls her into a desperate embrace.

In the epilogue, set seventeen months later, Tallulah finishes her final exam for her master's degree. Burgess waits outside, listening to a playlist she and Lissa made for him. Lissa is thriving as a high school freshman, Ashleigh and her new husband attend regular family dinners, and Burgess is playing his final season before retiring. When Tallulah emerges, Burgess drops to one knee and proposes. The moment lands on the front page of the Boston Globe.