He was supposed to charm his way through two hundred hours of community service. She wasn’t part of the plan.

Darren “Dazzle” Kelly is the guy everyone loves — the highlight reels, the soundbites, the locker room energy that holds the team together on a five-game losing streak. So when a bar fight lands him with a community service sentence at a youth recreation centre in the Bronx, the Fury’s PR team isn’t worried. Dazzle will grin his way through it. He grins his way through everything.

Regina Andrews has been running this centre on duct tape and grant money for six years. She’s watched athletes and celebrities roll through on court-ordered apology tours — big smiles, signed jerseys, gone in a week. She doesn’t need another one. She especially doesn’t need one with red curls, no volume control, and zero awareness that “Reggie” wasn’t the guy he was expecting.

But Dazzle keeps showing up. Not for the cameras. Not for the write-up that’ll make the league forgive him. He shows up because a fourteen-year-old named Jaylen won’t talk to anyone else, and Dazzle can’t walk away from a kid who reminds him of himself at that age.

And Reggie notices. The way he remembers every kid’s name. The way his jokes land softer when someone’s having a hard day. The way he stops being “Dazzle” and starts being Darren — but only when he thinks nobody important is watching.

The problem? His service agreement prohibits personal relationships with anyone affiliated with the programme. If they get caught, his hours are voided, he faces league suspension, and the centre loses the credibility Reggie spent six years building. Everything she’s fought for, gone — because she fell for the exact kind of guy she swore she’d never trust.

When the league starts asking questions and the centre’s funding comes under scrutiny, they’ll have to decide what matters more — protecting everything they’ve built, or admitting that the realest thing in both their lives started with a court order.

Pucking the Penalty is book 6 in the New York Fury Hockey Series. Each book in this series features different characters and can be read as standalones, though interconnected through the vibrant world of professional hockey — including fan-favourite characters from the Boston Titans series.

Tropes you’ll love: forbidden romance, community service meet-cute, grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, opposites attract, slow burn, and a right winger who spent his whole career making people laugh until someone finally made him want to be serious.