Rochester Copperheads

Formerly released as Rough Draft. Re-release on 9 June 2026 as book 1 in the Rochester Copperheads series with a new cover and title - content remains unchanged.

***

He was supposed to be the NHL’s next superstar. Now Walker Hannan is one penalty, one bad decision, and one final chance away from losing everything.

Banished to the minors after becoming the kind of player coaches warn rookies about, Walker’s only focus is clawing his way back to the NHL before his career crashes for good. Then Finn Carter—an annoyingly optimistic art teacher with paint-stained hands and zero interest in Walker’s reputation—walks into his life and turns everything upside down.

What starts as an impossible attraction turns into something neither of them expected: late nights, stolen kisses, found family, and the terrifying possibility of something real.

But just when Walker starts wanting more than hockey, the NHL comes calling with the second chance he’s been waiting for.

Now he has to decide what matters more—the career he’s fought for his entire life, or the man teaching him there’s life beyond the ice.

Paint and Penalties is a grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract MM hockey romance packed with emotional hurt/comfort, found family, redemption, chemistry, and a hard-won HEA.

Content warning: This story has references to substance abuse, self-harm, childhood violence, school shooting, off-page physical child abuse, and mental health concerns.

One firefighter. One hockey player. One slow burn that had nothing to do with the fire.

Russell “Chip” Cornish has always been the heart of the Rochester Copperheads—he reads the ice in angles and probabilities, and the rest of the world the same way. He keeps his routines, maps every room in steps and distances, and lets his assistance dog Sable do the emotional heavy lifting when the world gets too loud. Then a fire changes everything, and the firefighter who pulls them both from danger turns out to be the one thing Chip can't calculate his way out of.

Pulling a stranger and his dog from a fire was just the job. Dane Rourke hadn't counted on the stranger being quite so impossible to forget—or on breaking every rule he'd signed up for about getting involved. After a second encounter crackles with something neither of them planned for, they start finding reasons to be in the same room—and then the same apartment. Slow and steady, careful and quiet, keeping it hidden from Dane's station captain while a homophobic colleague watches for cracks.

As the Copperheads chase the Cup and Chip and Dane navigate trust and the terrifying leap from careful to committed, they're learning that showing up—every time, even when it's hard—is everything.

Spectrum & Smoke is a steamy, slow-burn MM hockey romance featuring neurodivergent rep, an assistance dog who steals scenes, opposites attract, a hero learning to let someone in, and a love story that goes all the way to Game Seven.