CHECKED INTO LOVE

Luca Moretti went from NHL star to viral scandal in one catastrophic night. One video. One Manhattan club. Career in ruins, reputation destroyed, and a court-ordered punishment: fifty hours of community service in a Vermont bookstore.

The owner? Lauren Gray—whose brother’s hockey career Luca destroyed with one careless comment three years ago. She’s spent those years building a life in Harlow Creek, running Chapter & Brew, and hating the entitled playboy who represents everything wrong with privilege and cruelty.

Now he’s cleaning her toilets. And she’s going to make every single hour count.

The catch?

Luca isn’t who she expected. He reads Dante in Italian, quotes poetry to elderly customers, and shows up early to help with children’s storytime. The cocky billionaire heir hiding behind the scandal is genuinely sorry—and genuinely lost.

Her plan: Keep him at arm’s length. Assign the worst tasks. Survive fifty hours and send him back to his penthouse life.

His reality: He doesn’t want to go back. For the first time in his life, he’s not performing for cameras or family expectations. He’s just… himself. And the woman who hates him? She sees through every defense to the person he’s desperately trying to become.

Daily proximity breaks down her walls. Resentment becomes understanding. Hate becomes something dangerously close to love. Until his billionaire father demands he return to Manhattan—to an arranged marriage, the family empire, and a life that doesn’t include a small-town bookstore owner who makes him feel free.

Now Luca must choose: the billion-dollar legacy he was born into, or the woman who taught him that authenticity matters more than inheritance.

When he returns to Manhattan and signs the papers his father demands, Lauren’s worst fears are confirmed: rich boys always choose money. But alone in his childhood bedroom, surrounded by expectations and emptiness, Luca realizes the truth: you can’t buy what matters most.

He tears up the contracts, tells his father no, and comes back to Vermont with one question: “I’m staying. Permanently. If you’ll have me.”

TROPES:
• Enemies to Lovers
• Forced Proximity
• Small Town Romance
• Hockey Romance
• Billionaire Romance (Secret Heir)
• Redemption Arc
• Brother’s Best Friend Adjacent
• Class Differences
• Fish Out of Water
• Secret Relationship
• Grand Gesture
• Earned HEA

HEAT LEVEL: Moderate Spice (Sensual but not explicit, emotional focus, fade-to-black)