Atlanta Firebirds 01 - Fresh Ice - Riley Bauer

Written by Riley Bauer
Read by Michael Dean
Format: M4B

A sunshine center who’s never wanted a man before. A grumpy, closeted captain who hasn’t let anyone in for a decade. Co-captains. Teammates. A slow burn neither of them saw coming.

Ryan Asher has always been the sunshine in every locker room. The teammate who learns your name first, remembers your coffee order, and makes the room warmer just by showing up. Signed to the Atlanta Firebirds after a divorce he’s still pretending didn’t break him, Ash is chasing the fresh start he needs. New city. New team. New ice. He’s fine; he’s always fine. But from the very first phone call with his co-captain, something he can’t explain takes hold. Because Ash has never wanted a man before. And Antero Ikonen (six-five, Finnish, and devastating in his silence) is unraveling everything Ash thought he knew about himself. This isn’t just attraction. It’s a bi-awakening he never saw coming.

Antero “Avi” Ikonen hasn’t let anyone close in a decade. Fifteen years closeted in professional hockey. A secret relationship with a teammate years ago that ended in a fight on a highlight reel. A trade from Philadelphia that felt less like a roster move and more like being thrown away. Avi has learned exactly one caring about someone gives them the power to destroy you. As captain of an expansion team built from castoffs and rookies, his job is to lead, not to fall for the too-warm center who texts at midnight, stays late after team dinners, and somehow keeps finding doors in walls Avi didn’t know existed. He falls first. He falls quiet. And he can’t stop.

Except Ash doesn’t stop showing up. And Avi doesn’t stop letting him in.

What begins as forced proximity between co-captains becomes something neither of them can deny. Stolen hours on road trips, a drunk confession in a dark hotel room, a first kiss that rewrites everything. Their slow burn ignites behind closed doors while the team they’re building starts to feel like the found family neither of them has had before. But Avi knows how this story ends. He’s lived it. And the closer Ash gets, the harder Avi has to protect himself the way he always has, or trust that this time, loving someone won’t cost him everything.

Meanwhile, a stray cat keeps showing up at the Firebirds’ facility. He chooses Avi, whether he wants that or not. He feeds him. He carries him in his backwards hoodie. He refuses to call it love. Then he disappears and the loss cracks open everything he’s been trying to hold together.

Fresh Ice is a slow-burn, grumpy-sunshine MM hockey romance about a bisexual awakening, a closeted captain, and the expansion team that becomes their found family. Steamy and open door with hurt/comfort, forced proximity, and a stray cat who knows what he wants before either of them do.

Start the Atlanta Firebirds series with this standalone first installment. Perfect for fans of Rachel Reid, Eden Finley & Saxon James, and Tal Bauer.