Penalty Boxes & Yard Lines

Emelie Carter thought she knew exactly how her life was supposed to go.
Graduate early. Cornell business degree. Move to New York and slide into her mother's company like she was born to wear a blazer. Forget the soccer scholarship she turned down, forget the girl in the bright green dress on the playground, forget the two boys who once made a small town feel like the whole world.
Then her mother collapses, and one phone call drags Emelie back home, to hospital corridors, boardroom panic, and the ghosts of the life she didn't choose.
Waiting in the ICU are Jaden Cole, now an Ohio State football star studying to become a teacher, and Mayson Reed, a University of Pittsburgh hockey player chasing the NHL while majoring in childhood trauma psychology. Once, the three of them were inseparable: the golden retriever, the black cat, and the girl who didn't believe boys could stay... until they did.
Reunited under fluorescent lights and family pressure, old feelings come back with teeth. Late-night hospital shifts turn into confessions; a one-bed hotel mistake becomes a turning point. As Emelie is pushed toward the CEO seat she never truly wanted, Jaden and Mayson are forced to choose between careers built on image and a love that doesn't fit any of the rules.
Between penalty boxes and yard lines, conference calls and quiet classroom dreams, three best friends have to decide: Are they brave enough to build a life where nobody has to be the sacrifice and where love doesn't mean choosing one person, but choosing each other?