Press play. Start reading.

THE FORTRESS PLAYLIST

Per-book soundtracks for The Beaumont Fortress. Songs for men who are running out of places to hide.

Book 1

CROSS-CHECK

Rémi St-Amour & Jack Harrow | Enemies-to-lovers | Rival captains | First time

  1. 1

    Work Song

    Hozier

    Rémi on a road trip, writing the letter to his mother in a Halstead hotel room. The things he is allowed to say and the one thing he isn't.

  2. 2

    Sorrow

    The National

    Jack Harrow's entire interior. Seven years of finding one man on the ice before anything else and calling it rivalry.

  3. 3

    Bloodstream

    Stateless

    The forced PR appearance. Forty-eight hours. Two men learning each other's silence.

  4. 4

    Stubborn Love

    The Lumineers

    The handshake line. Good game, Twenty-Seven. Good game, Captain. Both of them lying.

  5. 5

    Motion Sickness

    Phoebe Bridgers

    Jack's fake engagement. The performance of a life. The specific exhaustion of it.

  6. 6

    From Eden

    Hozier

    The first time. The specific gratitude of being allowed to stop performing for one person.

  7. 7

    Holocene

    Bon Iver

    Rémi at his mother's funeral in Trois-Rivières with Jack two seats away. The weight of what they are not allowed to be in that room.

Book 2

THE BENCH

Oliver Kashani & Dominik Voss | Best friend's brother | Post-divorce self-discovery | Slow burn

  1. 1

    No One is to Blame

    Howard Jones

    Oliver in the backup crease, watching Dominik across the ice for six years and never naming what he was watching.

  2. 2

    Skinny Love

    Bon Iver

    The slow burn of a friendship that has been something else for longer than either man has wanted to admit.

  3. 3

    All I Want

    Kodaline

    Dominik alone in his apartment after the divorce. The first time in his adult life he has had to ask what he actually wants.

  4. 4

    Coming Down

    Dum Dum Girls

    Oliver watching Dominik recognize himself. The specific tenderness of witnessing that.

  5. 5

    To Be Alone

    Hozier

    The goalie/skater dynamic — Oliver's vulnerability rendered as something Dominik sees when no one else does.

  6. 6

    Strange

    Celeste

    The moment Dominik understands what he's been routing around for twenty-six years. Not sudden. Overdue.

Book 3

OFFSIDE AT MIDNIGHT

Cade Bellinger & Niko Rasmus | Out × closeted | The visible one and the invisible one

  1. 1

    Arsonist's Lullaby

    Hozier

    Cade Bellinger — the openly out winger, the symbol, the man who is starting to confuse visibility with freedom.

  2. 2

    Flaws

    Bastille

    Niko Rasmus in coastal Maine, alone for the first time in a decade. The absence of the performance.

  3. 3

    Bird Song

    Florence + the Machine

    The accidental meeting. The bookshop. The ferry dock. The one room above the garage.

  4. 4

    Real Love Baby

    Father John Misty

    Cade — openly bi for seven years, exhausted by being a symbol, remembering what it's like to just be wanted.

  5. 5

    Re: Stacks

    Bon Iver

    Niko in Tromsø every summer, going back to the harbor and the long northern light and the belief that love is something other people get.

  6. 6

    Only Love

    Ben Howard

    The night in Maine when both men stop performing. The visible one and the invisible one. Both needed.

Book 4

THE CAPTAIN'S LETTER

Asher Pryce & Ellis Marchetti | Second chance | Nine years | The captain who left and the captain who stayed

  1. 1

    Nine Years

    James Blake

    Asher Pryce. Nine years since Ellis Marchetti walked away in a parking lot in May. The specific geometry of unfinished things.

  2. 2

    Retrograde

    James Blake

    Ellis watching Asher from behind a broadcast microphone. The man who left watching the man who stayed become the captain.

  3. 3

    When I Was Your Man

    Bruno Mars

    Ellis in his parents' row house in Halstead, understanding what the nine-year wall has cost.

  4. 4

    Lover, You Should've Come Over

    Jeff Buckley

    The letter Asher never sent. The one Ellis finds anyway.

  5. 5

    Thank You

    Led Zeppelin

    The broadcasting booth. The post-game interview. Two men talking about hockey in front of a camera and not talking about anything else.

  6. 6

    Where Is My Mind

    Pixies

    Teddy Marchetti — Ellis's openly gay nephew — asking the questions Ellis spent fifteen years not answering.

  7. 7

    Gold

    Bon Iver

    The quiet resolution. The HEA that does not require a press conference.

Book 5

THE CUP IS A PROMISE

Toren Lark & Emmett Halloran | Forbidden | Married man | Series finale

  1. 1

    Galaxy Brain

    The National

    Emmett Halloran. The panic attacks the team doctor thinks are about contract talks. They are not.

  2. 2

    Death With Dignity

    Sufjan Stevens

    Emmett watching his children sleep. The life he built that was real and true and not the whole truth.

  3. 3

    Ocean Eyes

    Billie Eilish

    Toren Lark — the league's openly out poster child, starting to understand the cost of being the one allowed in.

  4. 4

    I Knew You Were Trouble

    Taylor Swift

    The playoff series. The Beaumont Crown vs the Halstead Sentinels, Season B. Toren and Emmett on opposite benches.

  5. 5

    Casimir Pulaski Day

    Sufjan Stevens

    Emmett and Jenna. The conversation at the kitchen table. Treated with the full weight it deserves.

  6. 6

    Bloom

    The Paper Kites

    The choice. To live truthfully, even when the cost is everything you built.

  7. 7

    The Promise

    Tracy Chapman

    Series finale. All five couples. The HEA is not the Cup. The HEA is the relationship.

"watching game film for 'research' and by research I mean I'm staring at athletes being good at things and taking notes for my fictional ones"

This playlist will grow as each book is released. Got a song that belongs in the Fortress? Tell me.