Unravel Me (playing for Keeps, #3)

The third installment in the Playing for Keeps contemporary romance series, the novel follows Adam Lockwood, the star goalie for the Vancouver Vipers, a National Hockey League (NHL) team, and Rosie Wells, a single mother and veterinary student, as they fall in love while grappling with deep-seated fears about being enough for someone else.

Adam wakes up hungover after a house party to find his ex-girlfriend Courtney in his kitchen claiming they slept together. He has no memory of any encounter and kicks her out. His teammate Jaxon Riley confirms Adam fled as soon as he spotted Courtney at the party, making her story implausible. The incident underscores his broader frustration: Since Courtney's betrayal, every date has revealed women interested only in his fame and wealth, leaving him longing for genuine connection.

Meanwhile, Rosie volunteers at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, where she has spent months building trust with Piglet, a rescued German Shepherd with severe anxiety. On a Saturday hike on Mount Fromme, she searches for a heart her father carved into a tree when she was 11. Adam's Bernese Mountain Dog, Bear, bursts through the trees and tackles her. Adam follows, tends to her scraped knee, and shares lunch with her. Piglet, normally terrified of men, warms to Adam and eventually licks his face. They part without exchanging numbers, both clearly drawn to each other.

After a disastrous Tinder date that evening confirms his frustration, Jaxon encourages Adam to return to the trail. The following Saturday, Adam shows up at Wildheart, and Rosie greets him with delight. She reveals her tendency toward worst-case-scenario thinking, and he admits he gets lost in his own thoughts too. He asks her to dinner, and they exchange numbers.

Adam enlists his friends' wives for dating advice. They recommend a private picnic and urge him to tell Rosie he plays professional hockey. He prepares an elaborate spread beneath solar-powered lights, and the date goes beautifully. Rosie shares that she grew up in Ontario, moved to Vancouver alone, and is on a full-ride veterinary scholarship. When she asks about his job, Adam panics and says only that he "works with athletes." Rosie, who does not follow sports, accepts this without suspicion. They dance without music, and he walks her to her door, kissing only her cheek. After she goes inside, her 15-month-old son, Connor, calls out for her, revealing that Rosie is a single mother.

Rosie texts Adam that they need to talk, and he drives to her apartment. Connor toddles out calling Adam "Dada," a common developmental phase. Adam crouches to the boy's level without hesitation. Rosie explains that previous dates rejected her after learning she had a child, but Adam tells her it changes nothing.

Their relationship deepens rapidly. Adam shares that he was adopted at age five after time in a group foster home. Rosie feels a painful stab of jealousy because her own years in foster care ended without adoption, but she keeps this hidden. Adam asks Rosie to be his girlfriend during Connor's bath time; she overhears and immediately accepts. Their first kiss comes on an inflatable mattress in Adam's backyard after a day spent swimming, talking, and putting Connor to bed.

As emotional and physical intimacy grow, Adam counters Rosie's insecurities about her post-baby figure with genuine adoration and gives her the first orgasm she has ever experienced with a partner. Throughout this period, he is tormented by his lie, recognizing that he asks Rosie for total vulnerability while withholding a major truth.

Rosie's world fractures from multiple directions. Brandon, Connor's biological father, insults her appearance during a phone call. The dean of her veterinary program then informs her that the scholarship donor pulled funding because she took maternity leave, and Rosie cannot afford tuition without it. Adam finds her on a campus bench, and she tells him her full story: Her parents died in a house fire when she was 11. Her father saved her first and went back for her mother. Fleeing through the backyard, Rosie fell into the pool and nearly drowned. She spent years in the foster system, never adopted, a wound deepened by overhearing Brandon tell his friends he never would have chosen her.

They make love for the first time that night. Afterward, Adam confides in Jaxon that he is in love with Rosie but still has not told her about hockey. Jaxon bluntly points out that Adam has done to Rosie exactly what he feared others doing to him: He lied to be liked. Adam resolves to tell her the truth.

Before he can, Marco, Rosie's close friend at the sanctuary, recognizes Adam as a famous NHL player and shows Rosie articles about his career and tabloid photos. Rosie is devastated, not by the hockey but by the betrayal of trust. She tells Adam his lie made her feel convenient and temporary rather than chosen. She does not break up with him but asks for time and space.

During their separation, Adam anonymously creates the Stardust Lane Scholarship, named after the street Rosie grew up on, so she can finish veterinary school. He plants peonies at the carved tree in the forest and in his front yard. When Bear collapses from gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV), a life-threatening stomach condition, Adam rushes the dog to Rosie's school clinic. Rosie assists in a successful surgery, and Adam finds her breaking down in the parking lot afterward, promising she will never lose him. Rosie watches Adam's preseason interview, in which he calls Connor "our son," and decides to return.

They reconcile at Adam's house. Adam explains that years of being valued only for hockey eroded his ability to trust. Rosie stresses that the issue was not hockey but the lack of trust, and they agree to rebuild slowly. Adam introduces Rosie and Connor to his teammates, teaches Rosie to drive, and builds a custom bedroom for Connor. Rosie and Connor attend Adam's home opener, where Connor wears a tiny Vipers jersey and Adam seals a shutout, tapping his heart three times and pointing at them through the glass. After Rosie accidentally blurts "I love you," Adam confesses the same, telling her she centered his world rather than disrupting it.

When Brandon leaves Connor home alone, Adam and Rosie rush to his apartment. Adam breaks down the door, and Rosie rescues the toddler from beneath a tipped-over playpen. Rosie severs Brandon's involvement in Connor's life. At Adam's charity gala for The Family Project, his ex-girlfriend Courtney crashes the event, visibly pregnant, claiming Adam is the father. His lawyer later confirms Courtney was already pregnant before the July party and staged evidence to frame him. Cara, the wife of Adam's teammate Emmett Brodie, leaks a recording that exposes Courtney's lies, and a no-contact order is issued.

Adam asks Rosie and Connor to move in at the start of the new year. Inspired by Lily, a five-year-old girl he has bonded with while volunteering at a foster home, Adam and Rosie complete foster parent training and Lily joins their family. Adam surprises Rosie by adopting Piglet from the shelter. On Mother's Day, he proposes at the base of her parents' carved tree, surrounded by blooming peonies, with Lily and Connor beside him. Rosie accepts and reveals she is pregnant. Adam carves all their initials into the tree alongside those of Rosie's parents, with plans to return in January to add one more.