One fake date. One real heart. One town that won’t let either of them hide.
Lucy Freedman has a five-year plan, a cozy routine, and absolutely zero interest in complications. As Hampton Springs’s most reliable elementary school teacher, she keeps her world orderly, her heart protected, and her weekends free from anything resembling risk.
Then Brad Whittaker moves in next door.
He’s a minor league pitcher for the Hampton Springs Mavericks—shy, sweet, and completely unprepared for the way Lucy rattles him. When he wins his first two games with her in the stands, the team decides she’s his good luck charm, and suddenly the whole town is watching.
Brad’s solution: fake dating. Just long enough to keep the gossip manageable and Lucy’s name out of the papers. Simple, temporary, totally controlled.
Except staged kisses have a way of feeling real. Texts about nothing become the best part of both their days. And somewhere between baseball games and back-porch evenings, the carefully drawn line between pretend and honest-to-goodness love disappears entirely.
Lucy has spent her whole life choosing safety. Brad has spent his wondering if he deserves to stay.
In a small town where everyone’s rooting for them—and Lila Navarro is quietly keeping score—the only play left is the one neither of them practiced: telling the truth.
A sweet, dual-POV romance with slow-burn heat, small-town charm, and a cinnamon-roll hero who absolutely does not know he’s irresistible. Perfect for readers who love Emily Henry, Christina Lauren, and Mariana Zapata.
Before the bar.
Before the teams.
Before the wall of champions.
There was one small-town softball game… and a bet.
Frank Navarro has always believed two things: softball is the best sport ever invented, and he will someday win the Hampton Springs summer championship. The problem? His team is terrible.
Enter Lila Torres, the fiercely competitive college athlete home for the summer who reluctantly agrees to help coach Frank's ragtag group of misfits.
Frank thinks he's getting a strategy expert. Instead he gets a woman who challenges everything he thought he knew about winning. Because according to Lila, the secret to a championship season isn't talent. It's heart.
As summer unfolds — through late-night strategy sessions, batting practice competitions, and a town festival that changes everything — Frank begins to suspect something even more surprising might be happening. He might be falling in love.
But Lila has a scholarship waiting at UC Davis. A future mapped out since she was twelve. And staying means risking everything she's worked for on a town, a team, and a man she's only known for one summer.
Welcome to Hampton Springs… where the greatest victories don't always happen on the field.
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The Sweetheart Sports Club
Where small-town romance meets big-time sports dreams .
Welcome to Hampton Springs — a small town with big heart, Friday-night stadium lights, and a community built around the belief that the best things in life happen when you show up for your team.
At the center of it all is the Sweetheart Sports Club Bar & Grill, owned by Frank and Lila Navarro. It’s the place where athletes celebrate wins and work through losses, where locals gather after games, and where—if the town legend is to be believed—love has a funny way of finding exactly the people who least expect it.
The Sweetheart Sports Club series follows seven couples across Hampton Springs’s local sports world: a rookie pitcher, a hockey captain, a golden-boy quarterback, a soccer coach, a rink manager, a landscaper, and a tennis instructor. Each one is certain he has his priorities straight. Each one is about to be wonderfully wrong.
These are sweet, character-driven romances with strong banter, emotional depth, and the kind of small-town warmth that makes you want to stay. Every book stands alone — but for readers who fall in love with Hampton Springs, the series builds a found family across all seven stories, with each couple reappearing as beloved secondary characters in the books that follow.
Hidden throughout the series is the Sweetheart Charm: a local legend that every athlete who falls in love in Hampton Springs plays the best season of his life. Nobody believes it. Lila Navarro quietly keeps score.
Coming soon!