After the Green Warriors’ second game ends in a nil-nil tie, the girls are despondent. Chelsea worries she is sacrificing ballet for nothing, and María complains about missing her farm animals. Cameron’s attempt at a tough-love motivational speech, in which he tells the girls to “toughen up,” only makes them cry. Adalyn quietly tells him his speech is not helping.

At a loss, Cameron and Adalyn accept a suggestion from Tony, and take the girls to Rockstone in a minibus to buy sno-cones. Cameron gives Tony cash for the treats and a hot tea for Adalyn. The sno-cones successfully lift the team’s spirits. While warming Adalyn’s cold hands, Cameron admits that making her smile was worth upsetting the children. Impressed by Tony’s initiative, Cameron and Adalyn agree to hire him as an assistant coach. Adalyn, cheered by the tea and the team’s improved mood, takes a bite of Cameron’s sno-cone when he offers it, then snorts the ice out of her nose, which delights the girls. As he and Adalyn banter, she suddenly sees something behind him that makes her panic.

Adalyn sees a man in the crowd wearing a hoodie featuring her face from the viral video. Panicked that Cameron will see it and discover her past, she tries to flee but trips over a water keg and sprains her ankle. Cameron rushes to her side, frantic with worry. She sees the man with the hoodie leave after talking to Tony. Overwhelmed, Adalyn begs Cameron to take her home.

He carries her to his truck and drives her back to the Lazy Elk. Once there, Adalyn insists on walking to her cabin alone, but her ankle gives out. Cameron scolds her for her stubbornness and carries her inside, along with a package that has arrived from her friend Matthew. After Cameron leaves, Adalyn opens the package to find Cameron’s old L.A. Stars jersey, which Matthew wants her to ask Cameron to sign.

Exhausted and in pain, Adalyn showers but accidentally soaks her clean clothes. With no other option, she puts on Cameron’s jersey and falls asleep. Later, she wakes in the dark to find Cameron’s cat, Willow, has joined her in bed. Groggy from her painkillers, she sends Cameron a series of rambling voice messages, telling him Willow is with her and that she finds the cat comforting during the storm.

Awake in the middle of the night, Cameron is worried about Adalyn. He receives a series of slurred, rambling voice memos from her. She tells him she has taken too many painkillers, has no way to ice her sprained ankle, and is being comforted by his cat, Willow. She also makes several confused and inadvertently suggestive comments about his body.

Alarmed, Cameron rushes to her cabin. He finds the door unlocked and Adalyn passed out on her mattress, wearing his old L.A. Stars jersey. The sight of her in his jersey, vulnerable and alone, stirs intensely protective feeling in him. He gently picks her up to carry her back to his own house. She wakes briefly in his arms, and when she asks why he is there, he tells her he is sorry for leaving her alone. As he carries her out, he assures her that she never needs to ask for his help.

Adalyn wakes up comfortable and warm in Cameron’s guest room with his cat, Willow, beside her. She has fragmented memories of the previous night: The pain, the painkillers, Willow’s presence, and Cameron carrying her to his cabin and stroking her hair until she slept.

She limps into the living room and is stunned to find a shirtless Cameron in the middle of a yoga elbow-balance inversion, with his elbows on the mat and legs raised. The sight of his muscular, tattooed body makes her flustered, and she accidentally makes a noise that startles him, causing him to fall. He admits that seeing her in his jersey made him lose his balance. Adalyn explains the jersey is from her friend Matthew, and Cameron offers to sign a different one for him. He then insists on making her breakfast and tells her a doctor is coming to the cabin for a house call to check on her ankle. Overwhelmed by his care, Adalyn agrees to his plan. She eats, showers, and sees the doctor, who confirms a low-grade sprain.

Later, Cameron returns with bags of new, practical clothes and boots for her. He tells her she is staying with him until her ankle heals and that his neighbor Josie is coming over to move her things out of the cottage. He overrides her protests, insisting she let him take care of her and threatening to burn her dilapidated cottage down if she doesn’t. When he asks what frightened her after the game, Adalyn confesses it was being reminded of her failure.

After Josie moves all her stuff into Cameron’s house, Adalyn can’t find her pajamas and puts Cameron’s jersey on instead. When he comes home from practice, he gives her a get well soon card from the team and they eat dinner together on the couch. Adalyn is struck by the domesticity of their arrangement, and she’s surprised to find she likes it. The thought scares her and she immediately attempts to shift their dynamic back to work colleagues by demanding they discuss the plan for the rest of the season.

Instead of getting annoyed, Cameron calmly takes her anxiety in stride, which unsettles Adalyn more. She asks, “Why are you not complaining and looking exasperated? Why are you not storming out of here because I’m difficult?” (235). Cameron says it’s because he’s starting to understand her. Adalyn feels the air between charged with their chemistry. Cameron says, “You want a man that won’t run away scared? A man that’ll leave his bloody skin in the game? […] I’ll be your man, then” (236).

A week later, Adalyn, attends practice, walking with a slight limp. Cameron is worried that she’s trying to walk on her sprained ankle, but he’s clearly happy to see her. Adalyn notices he has trimmed his beard, and they share a charged moment when she raises her hand to touch his face. The girls, led by María, are thrilled to see Adalyn, who tells them she has a surprise for them—new uniforms have arrived. Excited, the girls tell her they have a surprise for her, too.

María reveals that Cameron, with help from her father Robbie and brother Tony, has been secretly converting the old shed by the practice field into a proper office for Adalyn. Cameron had been working on it with them while Adalyn was recovering on his couch.

After the Green Warriors win their second game, Adalyn attends the town’s fall festival. Feeling overwhelmed by the fact that Cameron built her an office and the escalating attraction between them, Adalyn finds herself avoiding him. She stops at Josie’s coffee stand, where Josie encourages her to give both herself and Cameron a chance at happiness. While they talk, they notice Diane flirting aggressively with Cameron. Clocking his discomfort, Adalyn goes to rescue him, inventing a “soft cheese emergency” (249) that requires his immediate attention.

Cameron plays along and pulls her away. To escape the persistent Diane, he scoops Adalyn into his arms and sprints away, hiding behind a truck. The adrenaline-fueled moment pushes Adalyn to admit she was jealous. Cameron brings her body flush against his, confessing he has been desperate to know if she wants him the way he wants her. Just as they’re about to kiss, the truck’s engine starts, breaking the spell. As they walk away, Cameron tells her she has just given him a reason to play the “longest game” he ever has.

When Adalyn returns from the soccer game, Cameron’s waiting with a lasagna he’s cooked for them. After the team only managed a tie, eliminating their chance at the finals, Adalyn is more concerned with the girls’ morale than her own disappointment. Cameron notes that she hasn’t invited any press to the last few games, suspecting she did it to protect his privacy. She deflects by asking about the true reason for his sudden retirement. Deciding to be vulnerable, Cameron reveals that a fan broke into his home and stood over him while he slept. The terrifying incident made him quit, fearing he could not protect a future family from the dangers his fame attracted.

Deeply moved, Adalyn throws her arms around him. She apologizes profusely for her earlier threat to expose his identity to the town, horrified that she unknowingly used his deepest fear against him. Cameron assures her that he knows she never would have followed through with it. They share a moment of mutual apology for their past behavior toward each other. When Adalyn excuses herself to the restroom, Cameron receives an email from his agent, Liam, about a potential sporting director job with the Miami Flames. The email includes a video link explaining the “media mess” Adalyn was sent to fix. Cameron opens it and is shocked to see a video of Adalyn at the Flames’ stadium, stomping toward the team’s mascot.

When Adalyn returns to the kitchen, she finds Cameron watching the viral video of her mascot incident. Adalyn explains that her father sent her away because she had become a “a PR problem for the club” (266). Cameron is horrified not by the video, but by her father’s reaction, insisting she is not a problem and that if he was in Andrew’s place, he would have done anything to protect her from the public humiliation and online bullying. His fierce defense overwhelms Adalyn. Cameron tells her he will show her how different he is from her father. To comfort her, he pulls her onto the couch and holds her through the night.

The next morning, Adalyn wakes on the couch and, not seeing Cameron, confides to the cat, “I’ve never been this sexually frustrated before” (269). Cameron overhears her from the kitchen and teases her mercilessly, eventually taking his shirt off to prove he is the cause of her feelings. Shifting to a more serious tone, he suggests she join him for yoga and meditation to help with her anxiety, promising to guide her through it. He tells her he does not intend to slay her dragons for her, not because she cannot handle them, but because she would hate it and does not need him to. He reveals he has a surprise planned for after Josie drops her back from girls’ time. In a moment of vulnerability, Adalyn admits she wouldn’t hate it if he were the one to slay her dragons.