Characters

• Rio DeLuca: Chicago Raptors defenseman whose childhood love for Hallie is rekindled as they navigate a home renovation, past betrayals, and his career decisions.
• Hallie Hart: Interior design intern and bartender who once was Rio’s next-door neighbor and first love, carrying years of caretaking for her father and financial strain.
• Mia DeLuca: Rio’s mother who was devastated by her husband’s affair and initially blamed Hallie, later reconciling with both.
• Marco DeLuca: Rio’s father, whose affair with Hallie’s mother shattered both families.
• Stephanie (Steph) Hart: Hallie’s mother, who had an affair with Marco and pressured Hallie to keep it secret.
• Mr. Hart: Hallie’s father, a non-Hodgkin lymphoma patient whom Hallie cared for through years of treatment.
• Luke Hart: Hallie’s brother and Rio’s former best friend, who later admits he failed Hallie during their father’s illness.
• Wren Wilder: Rio’s neighbor and Hallie’s roommate, whose renovation leads Hallie to Rio’s project and provides support.
• Indy Shay: Rio’s close friend who urges him to let Hallie take the project and later to fight for their relationship.
• Ryan Shay: Indy’s husband and part of Rio’s found family.
• Evan “Zee” Zanders: Rio’s defensive partner and friend who supports Rio and Hallie.
• Stevie: Zee’s wife, part of the supportive friend circle.
• Kai Rhodes: Friend in the close-knit group who backs Rio.
• Miller Rhodes: Kai’s wife, who welcomes Hallie and pushes Rio to act.
• Isaiah Rhodes: Friend who bluntly raises Rio’s likely move and supports him.
• Kennedy Rhodes: Isaiah’s wife, a physician and supportive friend.
• Tyler Braden: Hallie’s boss who champions her talent and sends her to meet Rio on the road.
• Tina: Tyler’s operations lead who nudges Hallie to keep Rio’s project.
• Will: Rio’s agent who signals Boston’s interest before Rio ultimately re-signs in Chicago.

Full Summary

Rio DeLuca returned to Chicago after the summer and endured a failed second date before reconnecting with friends and discovering his neighbor Wren’s renovation; he weighed a contract extension against a possible hometown move to Boston. At a game, Hallie Hart—Wren’s new roommate and Rio’s childhood next-door neighbor and first love—unexpectedly locked eyes with him from the glass; soon after, Rio found her moving in next door, and a tense confrontation exposed that she had led Wren’s renovation and had been requested for his. Financially strapped and needing the project for a full-time offer, Hallie pursued the job, and after initial resistance and a disastrous first meeting, Rio relented, texting her to start.

Working together reignited nostalgia, attraction, and unresolved hurt. A careful truce gave way to charged walk-throughs, flirtation, and moments with Rio’s found family, while Hallie’s second job bartending revealed her strain and Rio’s protective instincts. Their connection deepened through late-night drives, a porch kiss before a road trip, and Rio insisting on in-person design decisions; in New York, he chose Hallie’s design preferences and admitted he wanted to see her. An intimate but restrained night followed where Rio asked for another chance and held a boundary of no sex without commitment; back in Chicago, small domestic moments and music in Rio’s house signaled thawing.

As their bond warmed, revelations surfaced. Hallie found a box in Rio’s closet containing every mixtape and CD she had made him and his old bracelet, proof he never forgot her. Mutual phone intimacy bridged distance on the road. In Boston, Rio confronted his father about the affair that had broken his family and admitted to his mother that he still loved Hallie; he then learned Hallie’s father had been hospitalized and rushed to Minnesota, where he supported Hallie through a scare that ended with good news. There, Mr. Hart privately told Rio of Hallie’s years of sacrifice—moving for treatment, dropping out of school, working odd jobs, and accruing debt—and asked him to take care of her.

Back in Chicago, the truth finally came out: Hallie revealed her debt from her father’s clinical trial and that she had learned of the cancer two weeks before Rio left for training camp. Years earlier, at nineteen, she had discovered her mother Stephanie’s affair with Marco DeLuca and, under pressure to protect her ill father, kept it secret, a choice that imploded when Mia discovered the truth and Rio, devastated, pushed Hallie away. With the past laid bare—and proof of Rio’s enduring devotion—Rio and Hallie chose each other again, crossed their no-sex boundary, and admitted they had only ever been with one another. They recommitted openly despite Mia’s lingering hostility, as Rio boosted Hallie’s career visibility and she earned a full-time offer and new projects.

Career stakes intensified: Boston appeared to clear cap space for Rio, and friends assumed he would leave after the season. At a family-style dinner, Rio revealed he had changed his jersey to 38 for Hallie’s birthday, but Hallie overheard him tell Indy he would sign and feared being the cause of a rift with Mia. On the eve of her birthday, she flew to Boston alone to reconcile with Mia, explained why she stayed quiet years ago, and both women apologized and forgave each other. When Rio arrived in Boston, he and Hallie exchanged love on their childhood roof at midnight as he revealed he had already signed a contract extension to stay with the Chicago Raptors and that the Chicago house—bought years earlier with her in mind—was their home.

Two months later, their renovated house became the centerpiece of a joyful housewarming with teammates, friends, neighbors, and family. Mia and Mr. Hart greeted each other warmly, old wounds continued to heal, and Wren prepared to move to California. Among the gathered circle, Rio showed friends the engagement ring he intended to offer Hallie that night on their shared roof, closing their second-chance arc with a promise of the future they had once planned.