The Boyfriend Zone by Ruby Keller

They say journalists should never become part of the story. Someone should’ve warned me before I locked eyes with six-foot-two of brooding hockey defenseman.
Covering the college hockey team was supposed to be my stepping stone, not the assignment that would tangle my heart in a power play I never saw coming.
My mentor always preached about professional distance. Funny how those principles evaporate when Sean’s guarded eyes meet mine across a locker room.
Then I noticed it during a game. The wince, the careful way he rotated his shoulder when nobody was watching. Nobody except me.
The scoop of the season is right there. The star defenseman hiding injury, risking his future in the pros. The kind of story that could launch my career. The kind of betrayal that would shatter whatever this electric thing between us is becoming.
Every journalist instinct screams to follow the story. Every other part of me wants to follow him.
Each interview becomes a dance. As I circle closer to his secret, he leads me away with those rare smiles that transform his serious face into something my recorder can’t capture.
He says I’m trouble with a press badge, closer than a source should ever be. I should back away, remember my ethics, protect my journalistic integrity. But he’s a story I can’t stop writing.
We’re closing in on the championship. I’m closing in on my deadline. Something has to give, and I’m terrified it might be my heart.
Because the headline forming in my mind isn’t about hidden injuries or hockey glory.