The Right Move

Liz Tomforde's The Right Move is set around a Chicago basketball team. Ryan Shay has just been made captain of the Devils, and the last thing he needed that year was for his sister's best friend, Indy Ivers, to move into his apartment. She is messy and emotional and he finds her far more tempting than is convenient. When the team's general manager openly disapproves of his promotion, saying that Ryan is a lone wolf who cannot balance work and life, Ryan decides that the simplest way to answer the criticism is to pretend that he and his outgoing roommate are a couple.

The arrangement is not one-sided. Indy has a wedding coming up at which every one of her childhood friends, including her ex-boyfriend, will be present, and she cannot think of a better date than her ex's celebrity hero. So the two of them share a flat, a calendar of family events and a story that neither of them can keep track of, and the pretence costs Ryan less than he expected, since he is quick to say that he does not believe in love. Faking it feels far too natural, and having Indy under his roof complicates the arrangement further, particularly because the things she hopes for from a relationship are exactly what he has been avoiding.

The Right Move was published in 2023 and is a sports romance by Liz Tomforde, set in the world of a professional basketball team rather than in the hockey world of her earlier book.