Right Wing Return Pass (Rougarous Hockey #4)

One right wing who believed his own press. One PR pro who knows how to create it. One second chance headed in opposite directions. Again.

Drew Sorenson was supposed to keep climbing the professional hockey ladder. Instead, his talent gets overshadowed by his reputation, and he lands with the Baton Rouge Rougarous at the bottom rung of pro hockey with one job: prove he's still worth another look.

Samuel Turk makes his living making sure people look.

Five years ago, Drew and Samuel were college lovers with chemistry to spare and very different ideas about what came next. Drew chased hockey. Samuel built a life without him. Now they're wearing the same team colors — Drew on the ice, Samuel behind the scenes — and Samuel's job is to rebuild the image of the man who once broke his heart.

The problem is, the chemistry never left.

But the better Drew plays, the closer he gets to the call-up he came to Baton Rouge to earn. Two men who once wanted different futures have one season to choose the next one together.

Right Wing Return Pass is a sensuous, slow-burn standalone MM second-chance hockey romance set in sports-crazy Baton Rouge, where hockey is the new game in town — full of old hurt, hard-earned trust, workplace tension, found family, one rescue dog with impeccable judgment, and learning when to make the pass. This story is an interconnected standalone in the Rougarous Hockey subseries, part of the Bayou Boys world.

TROPES:
• Second chance romance
• Exes to lovers
• Slow burn
• Workplace romance
• Forced proximity
• Mutual pining
• Rescue dog
• Found family
• Minor league hockey romance
• Redemption arc
• Sports-crazy Baton Rouge setting

Heat Level: Steamy
Genre: MM Romance
Tone: Warm, slow burn, hopeful
Series Type: Interconnected Standalone in the Rougarous Hockey subseries — each book reads independently. Part of the Bayou Boys world.
Ending: HEA
POV: Dual / First Person
Content Notes: Co-parent custody tension around a preteen (secondary storyline; resolves warmly)
Perfect for fans of: the warm community of Schitt's Creek, the found-family sports heart of Ted Lasso, and second-chance romances where falling back in love is easier than figuring out what comes next