The Girlfriend Goal by Ruth Kennedy

I don’t do hockey players. Period. That’s what I tell myself when Lance stumbles into the wrong locker room and gets an eyeful of me.

Instead of apologizing like a normal person, he actually grins at my blistering tirade about male athletic privilege. The audacity.
My senior year plan is simple. Captain my soccer team to victory, graduate with honors, and land a job that’ll help my parents escape poverty.
Romance? Hard pass. My ex-boyfriend taught me everything I need to know about trusting athletes with my heart.
Then our professor commits academic cruelty by making Lance my partner for our semester practicum. Suddenly I’m spending every day with six-feet-two of pure trouble, complete with that dangerous smile and eyes that see too much.

Working with at-risk youth should be safe territory. But watching Lance mentor a kid with unexpected gentleness? Discovering the learning challenges he hides behind his cocky facade? Finding him in the library at midnight, struggling through textbooks with determination that matches my own?
My carefully constructed walls are crumbling.
Between my best friend’s theatrical warnings about “hockey boy germs” and the ridiculous nemesis-flirtation with Lance’s roommate, I’m surrounded by chaos.
Lance invades my space, my thoughts, and eventually my kitchen, where his attempt at cooking leads to smoke alarms and kisses that make me forget why I swore off love.
But I’ve worked too hard to let Lance derail my plans with his unexpected depth and those hands that make me consider very bad decisions. Even if he looks at me like I’m his personal miracle. Even if he’s slowly proving that not all athletes are the same.

Even if walking away from him might be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
My head knows what I should choose. My heart has other ideas. And when the playoffs collide with my championship game, I’ll have to decide. Is protecting myself worth losing the boy who makes me believe in second chances?
Some risks change your life. Some change your heart. Lance might just do both.

This romcom delivers enemies-to-lovers between a guarded soccer captain and a persistent hockey star, plus meddling best friends and found family feels.