Tal Bauer Books

I keep things simple. I'm a classic one-night wonder. Relationships? Are you out of your mind? No. No way. Not interested. My heart is vulcanized rubber, puck hard, and that's the way I like it. Then I'm traded to the absolute worst team in the NHL, the Rocky Mountain Outlaws, and I'm hit with a one-two punch. First: I'm asked to step up and lead the team, which is every kind of bad idea you can imagine. I'm a head-down, mind-my-business kind of guy. Mr. Uninvolved, Mr. No, Not Me, Mr. Find Someone Else. But these players have been through a mess of hell, and someone thinks I can help pull them together. Second: The first day I'm in Boulder, I go over the boards and come face-to-face with a pair of blue eyes and lose my heart. Boy, howdy: meet my new co-captain, Shea Darling. He's way, way off-limits. It's a stratospherically terrible idea to want or crave him. This crush, this infatuation, is going nowhere fast.

In a heartfelt MM romance, a single dad navigates the complexities of friendship and unexpected attraction. Landon Larsen is the ideal father, admired by all in Last Waters, Texas, with a seemingly perfect relationship with his son, the high school quarterback. In contrast, the narrator struggles with a strained bond with his own son, who has barely spoken to him since the death of his wife a year ago. As the two boys are best friends, Landon, the football Team Dad, encourages the narrator to volunteer, hoping it will help mend his relationship with his son. As they spend more time together, the narrator finds himself drawn to Landon in ways he never anticipated, despite having never been attracted to men before. Their friendship deepens, and the narrator begins to reconnect with his son, but he grapples with his growing feelings for Landon. The fear of jeopardizing his fragile relationship with his son looms large as he realizes he is falling for the father of his son’s best friend. Torn between his emotions and parental responsibilities, he questions whether he could ever be with someone like Landon. Just as he thinks it’s impossible, he finds himself kissing him, igniting a whirlwind of feelings he can’t ignore.