The Score

After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend Sean McCall, Allie Hayes fears that seeing him will weaken her resolve. With her best friend Hannah Wells away, Allie takes refuge at Garrett Graham’s off-campus house, where she unexpectedly interrupts Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis in the middle of a threesome. Dean is annoyed, but under pressure from their mutual friends, he agrees to keep Allie company and guard her from Sean’s texts. As the night turns from awkward babysitting to tequila-fueled confession, Allie explains that Sean became controlling and wanted a future that conflicted with her acting ambitions. Dean flirts shamelessly, but Allie insists she is not interested in a rebound.

The next morning, Allie wakes in Dean’s bed and remembers that they slept together twice. Mortified, she insists it was a one-time mistake and leaves, while Dean is surprised to find he wants more. He keeps pursuing her, first through teasing calls and texts, then by showing up when she is shaken by Sean’s attempts to re-enter her life. Dean challenges Allie’s guilt and tells her that consensual sex does not make her shameful. Their friendship grows through TV nights, banter, and unexpectedly honest advice, even as Allie keeps setting boundaries.

Meanwhile, Dean’s own life becomes more complicated. Briar hires Frank O’Shea, Dean’s former high school coach, as defensive coordinator. O’Shea demotes Dean and assigns him to volunteer-coach the Hastings Hurricanes, a middle school hockey team. Dean recognizes the punishment as personal: O’Shea blames him for what happened years earlier with his daughter Miranda, Dean’s high school girlfriend. Though Dean resents the assignment, he discovers he enjoys coaching. He connects with Coach Doug Ellis, helps young Robbie with hockey skills, and promises Robbie’s sister Dakota that he will teach her to skate.

Allie eventually admits she still wants Dean and agrees to a secret fling. Their chemistry is intense, playful, and increasingly intimate, but secrecy creates complications. Hannah nearly catches them in Allie’s room, Logan accidentally walks in during a bath at Dean’s house, and the friend group remains unaware while Dean and Allie struggle with jealousy. When Allie hears that a woman named Penelope is all over Dean at a bar, she confronts him; Dean insists he rejected the kiss and kept their exclusivity agreement. Their fight ends in a risky alley hookup, confirming that neither is ready to walk away.

Allie also brings final closure to Sean. When he offers to move to Los Angeles with her after graduation, she realizes she no longer loves him and returns the tickets. Dean, briefly shaken by uncertainty and his own possessiveness, withdraws until Allie confronts him after he is ejected from a game for fighting. On a Thanksgiving trip to New York, Dean tells Allie the truth about Miranda: their breakup, combined with Miranda’s depression and stopped medication, led to a crisis that made O’Shea blame Dean. The confession helps Allie understand Dean’s rules about honesty and emotional boundaries. She invites him to Thanksgiving with her father, Joe Hayes, but Joe openly distrusts Dean, seeing him as privileged, shallow, and unprepared for hardship.

Despite Joe’s disapproval, Allie and Dean deepen their bond in New York. Allie sees Dean’s immense family wealth, hears about his discomfort with unearned privilege, and joins him, Beau Maxwell, Joanna Maxwell, Dillon, and others for a club night. Dean reveals that Sabrina James once exposed a grade scandal involving a teaching assistant he was sleeping with, leaving him resentful that his family connections protected him from full consequences. Back at Briar, Sean learns through Jim Paulson that Allie and Dean traveled together. He arrives drunk, verbally abuses Allie, and slut-shames her until Garrett removes him. Dean rushes to comfort Allie, and in the aftermath he declares that they are together. Allie agrees, and they reveal the relationship to Hannah and Garrett.

As an official couple, Allie sees Dean’s tenderness with the Hurricanes, especially Dakota, and Coach Ellis tells Dean he may belong in teaching or coaching. Allie, meanwhile, questions whether she wants a Los Angeles sitcom opportunity when her father’s multiple sclerosis is worsening in New York and she craves more serious work. Dean’s lively sister Summer visits, and shortly afterward Allie accidentally mistakes Dean for an intruder, throws soup, and knocks him out with a paperweight. The chaotic incident leads to an unplanned confession: Dean blurts that he loves Allie, and she says it back.

Over winter break, Allie meets Dean’s welcoming family, but Joe again warns her that Dean will not be reliable when life gets ugly. Dean proves otherwise by surprising Allie with salsa lessons, something she once said she wanted. Then tragedy strikes: Garrett tells the house that Beau Maxwell has died in a car accident. Dean spirals into grief, drinking and using drugs to numb himself. He cannot attend Beau’s memorial, and although Allie comforts him when he finally breaks down, the relief does not last. Dean quits coaching the Hurricanes, withdraws emotionally, and misses Allie’s opening night because he is high on molly at a party. Allie confronts him, refuses to keep cleaning up his messes, and leaves.

Dean wakes in shame, with Garrett and Logan urging him to face what he has done. At practice, Coach Jensen announces surprise drug testing, and Dean confesses his MDMA use before the test. Two days later he is kicked off the hockey team. This loss forces a reckoning. Dean apologizes to Allie, who forgives him but asks for time apart. He then makes amends with Hannah, his teammates, Coach Ellis, Dakota, Joanna Maxwell, and Miranda O’Shea. Through these apologies, he begins to grieve Beau honestly and reconnects with the purpose he found in coaching.

Allie flies to Los Angeles for a Fox chemistry read but ultimately trusts her instincts and declines the sitcom because the role is not right for her. Dean goes to New York when Joe sprains his wrist, stays to help him, and gradually earns Joe’s reluctant respect. Reunited with Allie, Dean reveals he has chosen a new path: he wants to pursue teaching and coaching, with plans tied to New York. By April, Dean has a two-year teaching offer at Parklane Academy in Manhattan, while Allie lands a serious role on a New York-based cable series from Brett Carson. Their futures finally align in the same city. The book closes with their relationship secure and with a new shock for the friend group: John Tucker announces that he is going to have a baby with Sabrina James.