Reading His Lips

Roman Torres lives by a simple rule: hockey comes first, and feelings never do. As the twenty-one-year-old junior as well as captain and center of his college, he treats romance strictly as a series of temporary one night stand encounters, keeping his heart firmly locked down.

Mila Haze knows a very different reality. At nineteen, she is exhausted by a world that constantly overlooks her. Because she is deaf, people often assume communication is too difficult to bother with. That isolation has left her feeling entirely unwanted, carrying the heavy label of a virgin in a culture that values superficial ease above genuine effort.

When Mila accidentally wanders into the athletic hallway reserved for the hockey team, the collision sets off a spark. Stressed over an upcoming game, Roman snaps, yelling at her to leave the restricted zone. When she continues walking, his anger spikes until he marches up to confront her.

That is when he notices the truth: she is watching his lips, not his eyes. She never ignored him at all. In that sudden realization, the walls Roman built begin to crack, and an unexpected connection changes both of their lives forever.