Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“Is that Moore?” Coach Hoover whispered behind him, still in the hallway.
Dad nodded, and I prayed he wouldn’t move farther in, that he wouldn’t shut the door and find me standing behind it.
“He’s exhausted,” Hoover said, keeping his voice low. “They’ve been putting him through hell in the training room. And now full-out practice.”
“Let’s let him sleep,” Dad said, leading Hoover back out. “We can use the next room over.”
I willed myself not to breathe until the door clicked shut, and then I let out a relieved sigh, covering my chest where my heart galloped so hard and fast, I thought it was about to give out.
Holden waited a moment longer before he peeked over his shoulder at the door first, then at me.
He crooked a smile, waggling his brows as if to say, See? We got this.
Even as I shook my head and rolled my eyes, I felt myself smile, too.
That smile was a surrender.
And the games began.
Holden
I’d never been so unfocused in my entire life.
Fall was always a blur for me — a whirlwind of early morning weightlifting and practices that dripped from the morning into the early afternoon. When I wasn’t in class, I was practicing or training or watching film. And every weekend, I led my team onto the field for a game.
Football consumed me from the moment I opened my eyes each morning until the very second my head hit the pillow each night. And even then, I dreamed about football, about passing routes and the feeling of turf under my cleats and jogging through the tunnel on a perfect, gray, cool day.
But this season?
I was consumed by Julep Lee.
She’d been distracting before. I’d loved any opportunity to get under her skin, to push her buttons, to tease her and see if I could earn myself a blush or an eyeroll or a snarky shot back at me.
Now, she wasn’t just distracting. She was the center of my focus.
It was impossible to keep my hands off her once we’d made our little agreement, and any time I was alone, I was texting her.
Come over.
I’d sneak her through the back door, wait until my roommates were in their rooms so I could pull her back to mine. It would usually be morning by the time I let her go, let her peel herself out of my bed and leave me with nothing but a kiss to remember her by before she was gone.
And just when I thought I’d go insane if I didn’t see her, I’d get the same text from her.
Mary just left for work.
Wherever we could sneak off to make it happen, we did — and though my career was still important to me, for the first time in my life, it wasn’t everything.
That fact scared me more than I would ever let on.
Still, even with my focus off the field, I was performing on the field, too. I led us to a win in my first game back. It was a home game, which made it sweet, but the fact that we absolutely murdered them made it even sweeter.
Coach Lee still watched me carefully, like he wasn’t sure he trusted me even after I proved myself time and time again. I followed his orders… albeit I did make some tiny amendments from time to time. But every change I made was for the greater good of the team, and it showed as we all gelled together better than we had all season.
We were on our way to the championship; I could feel it.
The draft did weigh heavy on me, though. Scouts didn’t watch me as eagerly as before my injury. No doubt, they were worried it was one that would continue to flare up as I aged. It didn’t matter that my shoulder had torn in a different place than before, or that it had been a minuscule tear that I quickly worked through.
Injuries were like termites in their mind — they never went away, and they would wear down the foundation of even the strongest house over time.
It was maddening, to have something so out of my control dictating their thoughts about me, to have my own body breaking down on me when I felt so mentally strong and capable.
Those thoughts plagued me one night when Julep was in my bed, both of us sated and spent. She had her head on my chest, and I drew circles idly along her bare back. Most times, when we were done, we were in a hurry — she’d sneak off or I would before anyone could see us.
But my favorite times were the ones like this, when there was no real rush to move, when I could hold her for a brief moment in time and pretend she was really mine.
“You ready for the game this weekend?” she asked softly.