Waiting to Win - Lyon Evey

Connor Spears is hockey royalty who most definitely never planned to accidentally marry his childhood irritation Hadley Crews.

Connor is smug, grew up destined for his hockey career, and he's irritatingly good-looking. He was also my next-door neighbor growing up. He wouldn't give me the time of day and made it clear he would never be friends with me, the ballerina and daughter of a baseball legend. Except for that one time. Years later, one hazy night, and now he's apparently my husband according to the paper next to his bed in a Vegas hotel room. You would think we would have it annulled, but he needs to clean up his image, and I'm a sucker for his occasional glances.

So, we agree to stay married.

Rumor spreads fast in Lake Spark, and the responses of our parents, who are best friends, well, uh... they're mixed. But the problem with marrying for convenience is that you discover secrets about each other. You learn things too, like how he is by far more protective of you than you thought, or how sharing a bed brings out his dominant side. The thing is, it turns out that I may mean more to Connor than he'll ever admit. When life throws me another twist, I need a real husband to support me. And it turns out that Connor may have always been offside, waiting to win...

Connor and Hadley bring heartwarming steam to this marriage-of-convenience romance with a hint of enemies-to-lovers and a dash of unrequited love. Waiting to Win can be read as a complete standalone and is the second book in the interconnected Lake Spark Off-Season series which is a spin-off of the Lake Spark series that includes their parents' stories. For lovers of small-town romance with a touch of hockey.