Field Research

When creative writing major Francesca "Chessie" Sinclair receives her first disappointing workshop critique, she's determined to prove her professor wrong.

Apparently her hockey player hero isn't believable.

Fine.

She'll go find a real one.

Enter Beckett Thorne: six-foot-seven, star goalie for the Penn Holloway Ravens, chronic overthinker, and entirely too handsome to be considered an academic resource.

What begins as research quickly spirals into something far more complicated. Interviews become daily conversations. Questions become confessions. And somewhere between bookstore visits, hockey practices, and late-night texts, Chessie realizes she's learning a lot more than how hockey players think.

But Beckett assumes she's only interested in her project.

And Chessie is convinced a guy like Beckett could never want anything serious with her.

So when their relationship crosses a line, they agree on one thing:

It's casual.

No strings.

No feelings.

Just research.

Unfortunately, they're both terrible liars.