He runs the program. The transfer came to take it from him.

Beckett Calloway has spent two years being the still, controlled center of Hartwell's lacrosse team — the captain who reads every play a half-second early and never lets anyone see what's underneath. Then Malachi Vance transfers in with full eligibility, a quieter kind of confidence, and the terrifying habit of noticing the exact things Beck has spent his whole life hiding.

They're supposed to be rivals. They're competing for the same position, the same captaincy, the same square of turf. But Coach wants them running a two-man set together at five every morning — and in the half-second gap where their timing clicks, something neither of them has a word for starts to build.

Malachi didn't drive four hundred miles to fall for the one man standing between him and everything he came for. Beck didn't spend a lifetime building walls just to have a transfer read him like game film and stay. What starts as a secret in a locked room becomes the best thing in both their lives — until the closet, the cameras, and a father in the stands force Beck to choose between the version of himself the world approves of and the one who finally gets to be seen.

Rival Hearts is a slow-burn, emotion-forward MM college sports romance about two men who sound nothing alike, want each other more than either can say out loud, and have to decide whether being seen is worth more than being safe.

Perfect for readers who love:

Enemies-to-lovers and rivals forced into proximity

College sports romance with a grumpy/quiet dynamic

 Closeted athlete / out-for-you coming-out stakes

Slow burn to steam — restraint that finally breaks

Found family, one bed on the road trip, and a guaranteed HEA

No cliffhangers. No cheating. Just two rivals, one impossible position, and the long, aching walk toward the one thing neither of them planned for.

One-click and step onto the field. Some rivalries were never really about the game.

Scroll up and grab your copy of Rival Hearts today.