Echoes on the Sidelines - Dana Velle

Elena cataloged everything. Books, feelings, the exact number of days since her husband's aneurysm. Head librarian, single mother, woman who kept Mark's boots by the front door like a shrine she wouldn't admit to building.

Jack hadn't spoken more than six words to a woman in three years. Mechanic, widower, and father to a boy who played lacrosse like his dead mother drove: fast, reckless, and impossible to look away from.

They met on a bleacher in the rain. She shared a cheap yellow poncho. He said five words.

It should have ended there.

What begins as a proposition. Controlled, negotiated, safe. Becomes the most dangerous thing either of them has survived since loss. Because surrender isn't performance. And the person holding the rope might be the one who falls.

Echoes on the Sidelines is a full-length contemporary romance about two people who thought they were done feeling anything, and the small-town lacrosse season that proved them wrong.

Contains explicit sexual content, BDSM dynamics, and mature themes. Intended for readers 18+.

Content includes: power exchange, grief, loss of a spouse, teenagers navigating blended families, and a '69 Chevelle 454 that deserves its own acknowledgments page.