Cleats and Chemistry (One Sweet Soccer Summer Book 1)

SECOND EDITION! Updated Aug 10, 2026

He's my brother's best friend.
My off-limits patient.
The one player I swore I'd never want.

I'm the trainer keeping the Charlotte Kings healthy for the Global Cup.

One job. One rule.
Protocol first.
Feelings never.

Then Colton Ayers walks in with a torn hamstring, a crooked grin, and zero respect for my treatment table.
He's supposed to be a case file. A recovery timeline. Nothing more.

But he notices things nobody else does. The song I tap against my thigh. The poems I hide on my phone. The parts of me I keep locked behind a clipboard and a stethoscope.

He says he trusts me more than he trusts the coach's timeline.
I want to believe him.

But a reporter is already circling our story. One photo, one headline, and my career is finished before it starts.
And if my brother finds out I'm falling for his best friend, the one man he made me promise to stay away from, it won't just cost me my job.

It could cost me the only family I have left.

This summer was supposed to be about the Cup.
Instead, it's about the one thing I never let myself want.
Him.

✨ TROPES YOU'LL LOVE ✨

🌟 Small Town Nice Guy Hero
💝 Good Girl Rule Follower Heroine
⚽ He’s Her Brother’s Best-Friend and Teammate
⁉ Off-Limits Romance
🌟 Workplace Romance
❤ Forced Proximity
🎇 Opposites Attract
⚽ Soccer Romance Sports Romance
☀ Sweet Slow Burn Chemistry Worth the Wait