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Prologue

JORDY

Focus. Focus.

You’re the best. You can do this.

“Would you hurry up?” Shyloh Mendoza, the quarterback and real pain in the ass of the Crescent City Kings yelled to me.

“I’ll be there in just a minute,” I yelled back at him, wiping the sweat from my brow. I was the starting wide receiver for the Kings and somehow I still couldn’t tie my shoes fast enough. Call it childhood trauma, idiocy, it didn’t matter—I was a grown man who took a minimum of three minutes to tie my own shoes.

I jogged to the huddle and everyone stared at me with blank expressions. “Sorry. I had something in my eye,” I grumbled.

Shy rolled his eyes and called the play. Soon after the play ended, courtesy of a sack from our very own Conrad Stone—defensive end, and sure to soon be my brother-in-law—we all started to gather our things before heading out.

I watched as Shy saddled up to my sister, Lenna, who was a social media manager for the team, and her best friend Becca, who was in town for Lenna’s birthday.

Becca was stunning, and once upon a time I’d had a drunken night with her during college, but it was short lived. I was a hookup to her, and only that. It also didn’t help that she used to be in love with my older brother, Thomas, in high school, before he died in a car accident. I was much younger than Thomas and Lenna, but I remember it. Thomas, Conrad, Becca, and Lenna’s lives changed in a blink of an eye, but so did mine.

Our dad died when we were young, so Conrad was my only structured influence when it came to football. Neither my mom nor my sister wanted anything to do with it after Thomas passed.

I was raised by women, loving women, but I had almost forgotten how to interact with them at a level of interest. I was always shoved aside with ‘I just see you as a friend’ or ‘you’re like a brother to me,’ and that was the most consistent let down of my entire life.

“Jordy, wait up!” a soft, kind voice called out to me. Dani Corella. She was part of the social media team and a complete knock out. She had just recently transferred from another team, due to rumors that I’m sure were not true, but very entertaining.

I halted my steps and turned to face her. “What’s up?”

“I need you to come do an impromptu photo shoot and answer some questions—for a segment we have coming up.”

I dipped my chin down and gave her a look. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I know, but I really need you to come with me. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

“Sure, but only a few minutes.”

I walked into the media room, taking in all the backdrops racked in the corner. In the center of the room was a long rod with one draped over it, ready to be used for pictures.

She handed me my jersey, and I quickly replaced my practice shirt with my white and gold number twenty-seven.

“Perfect, come sit over here and I’ll snap some pictures while I ask you some questions, sound good?”

“Yup. Great.”

It did not, in fact, sound great. Zero part of me wanted to do this, but for Dani, I would.

The seat creaked when I settled into it and turned to face Dani. “Is this position good?” I asked, feeling self-conscious about how I was sitting.

“Perfect. Now I have about seven questions written down, but we don’t have to do all of them. It’s for the column in the local paper, but we’re also gonna post it on the social media accounts.”

I nodded, ready for her to start asking questions.

“First question: what inspired you to play football?”

I sighed. “Starting with the heavy, are we?”

Dani snapped a picture and leaned around the camera. “Unfortunately for you, yes. But for the thousands of fans, this is great.”

I sucked in a breath, knowing damn well she was right. I’d have to suck it up and just answer the questions the best I could.

“Fine.” I looked at her, trying to distract myself. Her curly hair fell around her face, framing her big brown eyes, and a subtle hint of pink on her cheeks. She was beautiful, and kind—or at least, she was always kind to me.

“My older brother, Thomas, inspired me to play. He was so good as a quarterback, but unfortunately he passed away in a car crash when I was younger. I started to play football for him, but as time went on, I started to play more for me than anyone else.”

Her eyes softened as she acknowledged my answer with a nod before moving on to the next. “Thank you. Okay, second question. If you could have any other job in the world, what would you want to be?”

I looked at the ceiling contemplating my answers. I’d always thought I would be a fireman, but that never came to fruition for me.

“Fireman.”

She smirked. “Okay, let's do this next question, then we can stop. What is your favorite midnight snack?”

A smile beamed out of me as I thought about my favorite snack. It was abnormal and I had never met anyone who liked the same thing as me.

“Don’t judge me, but… I love to get a scoop of peanut butter and dip it into my chocolate ice cream. It’s the perfect balance of cold, chocolatey and creamy.”

Dani’s camera dropped into her lap as her mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding me, right?”

I raised my brows. “Nope. I’m super serious.”

She grinned. “That’s my favorite midnight snack too! I’ve never met anyone else who likes it. Sometimes I’ll sprinkle some chocolate—”

“Chips? Chocolate chips! Are we the same—”

“Person?” She finished my statement and we both started laughing.

Her brows pinched together as she smirked. “Did we just become best friends?”

I nodded, matter of factly. “Yup. I think we just did.”

That was about the corniest things that could have ever happened to me, but I was not the slightest bit upset about it.

***

A few months later

“Elena, wait up!” I yelled at my girlfriend, who happened to be one of the strength coaches for the Kings’ organization. I had to keep our relationship quiet, per her orders, but I understood her reasoning.

“Where are you headed?” I asked.

Her phone was in her hands as she furiously typed away with no expression. “Oh, I’m just heading out, going home. You?” she replied.

I studied Elena as she continued to type. I stepped closer, wondering if she’d notice. She didn’t, so I took the opportunity to glance down at her phone.

John. Who the fuck is John?

When she realized I was standing so close to her, she pressed the phone against her chest and stepped back. “What are you doing?” she snapped.

I raised my brows. “Well, I’m wondering who my girlfriend is so furiously texting since she can’t respond to me in person.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, it’s nothing, just my friend Tia wanting to see what time we could go out tonight. I forgot that you and I were supposed to get dinner. Could we maybe do a rain check?”

No fucking way. She just lied to me.

“Sure. No problem. Where y’all going out? I wish I could go, but my hamstring is all fucked up.”

She smiled, reaching up to cup my cheek. “Yeah, you probably need to ice it for a while, then do a heating pad. But we’re going to the Avalanche Bar— that little dive by the quarter. I won’t be out too late.”

I nod. “Sounds like a good plan.”

She smirked, returning to look back at her phone as she walked away. In my heart, I knew I couldn’t go to the club. But I assumed someone on the team was going out tonight, because he always went out.

I sent out a quick text with my request. “Hey, if you end up stopping by the Avalanche Bar tonight—I need you to check on something for me.”

Blythe Wheeler, our running back, responded, “Anything for you, big boy.”

I sent him a smirking emoji and told him about keeping an eye out for Elena and this mystery person, John , because I assume he’d be there and that would be the end of us.

“No problem! I’ll let you know.”

***

Four hours later

Picture from Blythe.

It was Elena macking on some big ass dude at the bar. I simply saved the picture and sent it to her. “We’re done—tell John hello for me.”

Typing bubbles popped up, but no response came. Not until the next morning when she tried to call, leaving a voicemail which ended with her saying the exact response I thought she would. That I really am just a friend to her, and nothing more.

Of course I am.