Delayed penalty

When his estranged brother receives a life sentence, Seattle Serpents hockey player Hayes suddenly finds himself the sole guardian of his young niece — and desperately out of his depth. He hires Quinn Benson as her nanny despite Quinn being flighty, messy, and chaos-prone in every way Hayes usually avoids, but she makes his niece happy, so she stays. The more time Quinn spends around them, moving into his home and his life, the harder Hayes finds it to keep his distance, even as she threatens to upend everything he's working to hold together.

Teagan Hunter continues the Seattle Serpents series with a grumpy-guardian, sunshine-nanny hockey romance mixing steamy chemistry with genuine found-family warmth.