As the youngest heir of the Hartmann fortune and the backup goalie for the Boston Rebels, the pro hockey team my family owns, I’ve spent my life being the peacemaker in my cutthroat family and the goalie that my teammates can depend on. I have only one weakness: my coach’s daughter, Evangeline Wilcott. Eva is a pairs figure skater, and my life-long best friend. I’ve always wanted more, but she friend zoned me back in high school and we’ve lived thousands of miles apart since.
Eight years later, a secret pregnancy is threatening her skating career. When she’s rushed to the hospital right before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, I panic. Now, my team’s loss lies solely on my shoulders and I could be traded.
When Eva needs help, suggesting we get married is the easiest split-second decision I’ve ever made. A grandchild could keep me in Boston playing for my family’s team, and I’d do anything to take care of Eva. We agree to a marriage based on friendship, but once Eva and I are living together, all those artificial walls we’ve built start crumbling. Now, I’m making up for all the years I couldn’t call her mine.
But when her past reappears in our new life together, her happiness and my family’s reputation are both threatened. And maybe I’m not so different from my family after all, because I find there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep my wife safe and happy.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: childhood best friends to lovers is the best trope. Luke and Eva are a great example why this trope works so well. They have history. They have trust. They have inside jokes and corny stories they can use against each other. They have unconditional love and acceptance.
At its core, Goal Line is about Luke Hartmann, the loyal, soft-hearted backup goalie, who has spent his entire life caught between the demands of his powerful family and the quiet love he’s always held for his childhood best friend, Evangeline Wilcott.
Their worlds collide when, mere moments before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Eva is suddenly rushed to the hospital. Luke’s first instinct is to be by her side, but as the team’s backup goalie, he assumes he won’t see any ice time and can check on her once the game is over. That plan shatters when he’s unexpectedly thrown in front of the net for the final period. Distracted and shaken, his focus unravels, especially once Eva’s secret comes to light: a pregnancy that could end her skating career and alter his own future with the Rebels forever.
Desperate to protect her and his position with the team, Luke impulsively proposes a marriage of convenience. What starts as an arrangement quickly turns into something much more, and the facade of friendship begins to blur into raw, undeniable desire.
“Suggesting we get married is the easiest split-second decision I’ve ever made.”
The strength of Goal Line lies in the way Connors slowly peels back the years of longing between Luke and Eva. Their banter is easy, their connection unstoppable, and their vulnerability shines as the lines of their friendship dissolve. Every ounce of Luke’s devotion over the years, shatters into something fierce and inevitable the moment she needs him the most, and there’s no going back from that.
“Now, I’m making up for all the years I couldn’t call her mine.”
And here’s where Luke becomes utterly irresistible. On the surface, he’s all loyalty and golden-retriever devotion, but once he finally has Eva, his dirty mouth comes out to play. The things he says behind closed doors are downright filthy, the kind of heat that makes you squirm in the best way. “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed about this—about you falling apart for me,” he admits, and later, “I’m going to ruin you for anyone else, Evie.” And when he sees her wearing his jersey for the first time, it’s game over. It’s this mix of sweetness and scorch that makes him memorable.
“I will always treat you like you’re the most precious thing in my life, because you are.”
Eva’s journey is just as compelling. She’s fiercely independent, protective of her dreams, and determined not to lose herself and the skating career she’s built her life around, even as she finds herself tangled in Luke’s devotion. Their push and pull feels natural, and the payoff is as swoony as it is satisfying.
With its mix of best-friends-to-lovers tension, marriage of convenience, and a hero who will quite literally move heaven and earth for the woman he loves, Goal Line is the perfect choice for that happily ever after read that’s needed from time to time. No dramatic break up. No heartbreak. Just love and devotion. It’s tender and deeply romantic, a completely addictive story about finally crossing the line from friendship into forever.
“You and me together wasn’t chance, Evie. It was fate. There was no other possible outcome than this.”