He came to Australia counting the days until he could leave. She’s never understood why anyone would want to.

Hallie O’Connell has never dreamed of escaping Wattlebrook Ridge. She has everything she needs in the tiny Australian town she calls home: her family, a bakery she loves, a best friend who knows her better than anyone, and an entire community who considers her one of their own.

Then Chase Bennett walks into town.

A Canadian hockey star sent halfway across the world to headline a charity tournament at Wattlebrook Ridge’s struggling ice rink, Chase is unimpressed by almost everything he finds. The rink is falling apart, the town is in the middle of nowhere, and his real team is back in Canada preparing for a season he should be part of.

Somewhere between morning coffees, cinnamon scrolls and hockey games things begin to change. But Chase has a career waiting for him on the other side of the world and Hallie has built a life she genuinely loves exactly where she is.

Falling for each other was never part of the plan. Figuring out what happens when the final buzzer sounds might be the hardest play either of them has ever made.

A closed-door, grumpy-meets-sunshine hockey romance featuring a Canadian NHL star, an Australian small-town baker, cinnamon scrolls, found community, forced proximity, mutual pining and a love story with an expiry date.