lena morales keeps her head down, working as a locker room assistant for the san jose sharks to help her struggling family. invisible among NHL stars, she only opens up to a few trusted players--collin graf, michael misa, sam dickinson, and will smith-until macklin celebrini, the confident star who hasn't noticed her, begins crossing her path. quiet glances and accidental encounters slowly shift the space between them, forcing lena to navigate her responsibilities, friendships, and a connection that could change everything.

When Will Smith takes his best friend Macklin Celebrini on Vacation with his family, Macklin falls pretty hard for Y/N Smith.

Sloan Smith has her life planned around one thing - success. Top grades. Endless studying. No distractions. Especially not hockey players. Macklin Celebrini lives in a completely different world, one of early practices, loud locker rooms, and constant pressure to perform. He's focused. Disciplined. And not looking for complications. They're not friends. They're not enemies either. Just two people who keep crossing paths - until staying out of each other's orbit becomes harder than either of them expected. A slow-burn college hockey romance about pressure, timing, and learning to let someone in.

Olivia Bennett knows the rules of sports journalism - never get too close to the players you cover. As a reporter for the San Jose Sharks, she's built her career on professionalism. Too bad the internet is convinced she's secretly dating rookie star Macklin Celebrini. For two years, their interviews, inside jokes, and viral moments have had fans rooting for them. In reality, they're just friends. At least... that's what they keep telling everyone.

Macklin Celebrini x Jaylynn Winters Jaylynn Winters and Will Smith have known each other since kindergarten, but life - hockey, work, and complicated pasts - has kept them from realizing just how much they belong together. When Jaylynn moves to San Jose to work as the photographer and COO of the Sharks' media team, she reconnects with Macklin, a teammate of her lifelong best friend, Will "Smitty" Smith. From awkward introductions and jealous girlfriends to playful flirting, late-night talks, and stolen moments, their friendship slowly deepens into a passionate, unshakable romance. Through victories, heartbreaks, and life's chaotic moments - both on and off the ice - they learn to trust, love, and finally commit to one another. This is my first story so I don't know how good or how clear everything is. I'm down to have constructive criticism but be nice about it please! Hope you enjoy the story!

Quinn Taylor has made a career out of looking calm. On the ice, she's America's favorite kind of pressure-proof-bright smile, steady answers, the skater everyone wants to root for. Off the ice, she's an only child with a perfectionist's brain and a habit of carrying too much alone. The cameras love her. The country expects her. And the one place she can't afford to fall apart is the one place she's dreamed of since she was little. The Olympics. Macklin Celebrini has always made things feel lighter. He was the new kid at a Northern California rink at twelve-Canadian, polite, a little lost-until Quinn decided he was hers to keep. He became her best friend in the cold air and early mornings, the person who could make her laugh mid-breakdown and never ask her to perform for him. Then life did what life does: seasons changed, schedules got brutal, distance widened, and the kind of friendship that felt unbreakable turned into occasional texts and quiet missing. Now they're both back where the world is loudest. At the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Quinn is chasing the skate of her life for Team USA. Mack is carrying his own weight for Team Canada hockey. When reporters find out they grew up together, the story writes itself-childhood friends reunited, smiles caught on camera, a thousand strangers deciding what they are to each other. The only problem is... the strangers aren't entirely wrong. Between past chapters at a small California rink and present days in the Olympic Village, Quinn and Mack have to figure out what they really meant to each other then-and what they're allowed to be now, with medals on the line and the whole world watching. Because it's one thing to love someone quietly from a distance. It's another to have them show up in your life again and make everything feel possible.

Winona Smith is the younger sister of Will Smith. At a party she goes to toward the end of her senior year of high school, she meets a boy with the name Macklin Celebrini, things go well during the party and they end the night with a kiss. When her brother announces to his family that he's gonna try his luck in the NHL after being drafted the year prior, the choice is easy - she'll apply to a college close to where he's playing. This is when her brother reintroduces her to the boy she met at a party earlier that year. Her brother knowing nothing of their previous history is oblivious to what kind of tension this can create. started: April 10th, 2025 finished:

You met Will Smith during your sophomore year at Boston College-cocky, loud, impossible not to notice. He sat behind you in stats class and spent the whole semester finding new ways to make you laugh. Somewhere between all-night study sessions and Friday night games at Conte Forum, you fell hard. Now, two years later, everything's changed. You've moved to California for grad school, and Will's a rookie in San Jose-alongside Macklin Celebrini, the Sharks' other rising star. You expect long nights and even longer FaceTimes with Will. What you don't expect is the way Mack looks at you. Or the way he looks at Will. It starts small. Lingering glances. A touch that lasts a little too long. Jokes that land with a flush of heat. But soon, you're caught in something that feels like more than just friendship-something magnetic, fragile, and impossible to ignore. Three hearts. One shot. And the question no one's brave enough to ask: what if love doesn't have to choose?

Katy Jameson and Macklin Celebrini were inseparable in college-until the pressure of growing careers and uncertain futures tore them apart. She left for her dream job. He left for the NHL. Neither looked back. Five years later, an unexpected reunion interview brings them face-to-face in front of cameras, audiences, and every unspoken word they thought they'd buried. What begins as a media stunt quickly unravels into something deeper, messier, and painfully real.