The Wingman

The Wingman, the third installment in the Vancouver Storm series, follows Hayden Owens, a defenseman for the Vancouver Storm National Hockey League team, and Darcy Andersen, a statistician who has just ended an eight-year relationship with Kit Driedger, Hayden's best friend and a player on the Calgary team. The novel alternates between Hayden's and Darcy's first-person perspectives.

Hayden watches Darcy's first post-breakup date at the Filthy Flamingo, a dive bar the Storm frequent after games. When the date goes badly, Darcy flicks a drink coaster off the table, their prearranged distress signal, and Hayden calls with a fake emergency so she can leave. Darcy explains that in eight years with Kit, she never went on a real date, received flowers, or celebrated Valentine's Day. She asks Hayden, the most confident casual dater she knows, to be her wingman and teach her how to be a player. Hayden agrees on one condition: Darcy moves into his penthouse permanently rather than searching for her own place.

Their friendship dates back to a university English class, where they bonded over The Northern Sword, a fantasy romance book series. Hayden had planned to ask Darcy out, but Kit became her boyfriend that first week, and Hayden has quietly harbored feelings for her ever since. At Storm games, Darcy befriends Pippa Hartley, a singer-songwriter engaged to goalie Jamie Streicher, and Pippa's sister Hazel, a physiotherapist engaged to captain Rory Miller. Both women hint they suspect Hayden's feelings run deeper than friendship. Meanwhile, Coach Tate Ward moves Hayden from defense to offense permanently, believing the switch will unlock his potential.

Darcy resolves to reinvent herself, recalling how Kit discouraged her from wearing bright colors and dyeing her hair lavender. Hayden takes her to a bar to practice flirting, but the attempt fails, and when the man invites them to his apartment, Hayden ends the evening, unable to stomach the thought of Darcy leaving with someone else. Back home, Darcy practices flirting directly on Hayden, touching his arm and running her fingers through his hair. He becomes visibly aroused and retreats to his bedroom.

On Valentine's Day, Hayden fills the apartment with eight bouquets of red roses, one for each year of their friendship. At dinner, a server accidentally delivers an engagement ring meant for another table, prompting Darcy to reveal that Kit proposed publicly on New Year's Eve despite knowing she wanted out. She said yes to avoid embarrassing him and broke it off the next morning. They exchange gifts that evening: Darcy gives Hayden a Northern Sword t-shirt and a framed photo from university, which he secretly begins carrying on road trips. Hayden gives her a gold honeycomb bracelet with lab-grown diamonds, referencing her love of bees and mathematics. When Darcy mentions missing physical affection, they cuddle on the couch, but the intimacy leaves both aroused and shaken. Darcy insists the next morning that it meant nothing. Hayden agrees aloud but privately can no longer deny his feelings.

At a cast party for the Northern Sword television adaptation, Hayden grows jealous when a British actor flirts with Darcy. He suggests they kiss to deter the man, framing it as practice. Their kiss escalates into something far more intense than either expected. That night, Hayden tells Darcy that sex is supposed to be "all-consuming" and "life-changing," not the "nice" and "predictable" experience she described with Kit.

When Kit calls expecting Darcy to return to Calgary, she firmly tells him they are over and is left in tears. Hayden holds her through the night. Darcy impulsively dyes her hair purple with drugstore dye, producing a garish result; Hayden arranges for a stylist to fix it to the soft lavender she always wanted. He also gives her a Storm jersey with his name on it. At the bar, Darcy shows the team her hockey analytics models, which predict that restructuring power play and penalty kill lines would improve scoring. Hayden convinces Ward to try her suggestions, and the revised lineup works.

Their physical relationship deepens when Darcy asks Hayden for help with a sex toy Hazel recommended. He guides her through the experience with a tender confidence she has never seen from him. Shortly after, Alexei Volkov, Hayden's stoic defensive partner, asks Darcy on a date, primarily to provoke Hayden into acting on his feelings. Hayden insists on a double date with Georgia Greene, the team doctor, as his own date, and he is hostile and possessive throughout dinner. At home, Darcy confronts him, and Hayden confesses he has always had feelings for her, revealing he dated women who looked nothing like Darcy to avoid being reminded of her. They kiss, and the evening leads to intense mutual pleasure. They agree to continue their exclusive physical relationship until Jamie and Pippa's wedding, when they will decide what they want.

Ward offers Darcy an analyst position, but she initially declines. Years earlier, an error in one of her analytical models at a government job caused small farms to lose grants and got both her and her mentor fired. The trauma drove her into a safe, uninspiring insurance career. Hayden encourages her, and she eventually accepts the role. Ward signs college player Luca Walker before the trade deadline based partly on Darcy's recommendation.

On Darcy's birthday, Hayden gives her a signed advance copy of the next Northern Sword book, obtained by telling the reclusive author their love story, and throws a surprise costume party. He then meets Kit to tell him about the relationship. Kit is bitter and accuses Hayden of disloyalty. During the Storm's next game against Calgary, Kit targets Hayden on the ice, earning a game misconduct. Hayden refuses to fight. That night, he and Darcy have sex for the first time.

When Hayden's high school ex-girlfriend Jessica Haley approaches him at a store, Darcy stakes her claim as his girlfriend. After Jessica leaves, Hayden reveals the origin of his player reputation: Jessica dumped him after they lost their virginity and told friends how good he was in bed, and the label followed him ever since. He has always believed women see him as fun but not worth committing to. Darcy tells him he is "so much more." Under cherry blossom trees, Hayden asks Darcy not to let their arrangement end, and she tells him she is falling for him. At Jamie and Pippa's wedding in Whistler, Darcy privately realizes she loves him.

Kit disrupts their happiness by giving a press interview insinuating that Hayden's strong season results from "special treatment" from the team's new analyst. Both rush to Ward's office, each offering to leave so the other can stay. Ward refuses, revealing the organization has already issued a statement defending Darcy and condemning Kit's remarks as sexist. Under the cherry blossom trees, Darcy tells Hayden she loves him, and he tells her he has loved her for years. In an epilogue set the following September, Hayden proposes in their favorite park, and Darcy says yes. At the engagement celebration, she notices a wedding ring on Georgia's finger and discovers Georgia has secretly married Alexei, setting up the next book in the series.