As head coach for Baltimore’s hockey team, The Banners, Sonny LeBlanc has seen it all. Guts and glory. Hard-hitting and hard-headed players. A rise to fame and a plummet to failure. Scarred, determined, and tough-as-nails, he’s never met a challenge he couldn’t conquer—until he meets Monica Jennings.

A single mother who’s survived an abusive marriage, Monica Jennings is finally learning to live—little by little. That doesn’t mean she’s learned to trust and it certainly doesn’t mean she’s willing to open her heart to anyone but her daughter and her sister. And then she meets Sonny LeBlanc, the scarred coach of The Baltimore Banners. There’s something about him that makes her want to take a chance—or run in the other direction and hide.

Can Sonny teach the cautious woman how to embrace love and life, or will he lose it all by calling the riskiest play of his career?