Heart Trick Heart

He built his life around rules. The hockey player just walked in and broke every single one. Evan Carter knows better than to feel things. For four years, Bringham University's physical therapist has kept every athlete at professional arm's length — efficient, unreachable, and counting down the days until he can leave this campus and his shattered hockey past behind. He has a five-year plan. He has an exit date. He has exactly seventy-three days until graduation and a practice waiting for him three states away. Then Declan O'Connor limps in with a shoulder injury he's been lying about for weeks, and a smile Evan has absolutely no defenses against. Declan has chased belonging across two continents and three teams, pushing through pain that would have stopped anyone else, because stopping means admitting he might not be worth the roster spot. Hockey is the only proof he's ever had that he matters. He doesn't need a guarded PT with sad eyes and spotless professional ethics to complicate that. He doesn't expect a lot of things about Evan Carter. Somewhere between morning treatment sessions and midnight texts about nothing, between careful clinical touches and conversations that go places neither of them planned, the professional distance they're supposed to keep starts to feel like the most inconvenient lie either of them has ever told. Evan has an exit strategy. Declan has an injury that could cost him everything. And neither of them knows how to want something this much without destroying it. Unguarded is a slow-burn MM sports romance featuring a guarded physical therapist, a charming British hockey player, dual injury recovery arcs, coming out as self-discovery, found family, and an emotionally rich happily ever after. No cliffhanger.