by Erin Hayes
Second and Five
Erin Hayes
Margo Bond Collins
Table of Contents
Title Page
Second and Five (A Team of Her Own, #2)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Madison is about to get intercepted by a man from her past. Luckily her guys have a good defense.
When I inherited a pro football team in Birmingham, Alabama, they were the worst in the league. And I was an even worse owner.
That was six weeks ago, at the beginning of preseason.
Since then, the team’s won some games, lost a coach (well, okay, I fired the jerk), and tied up a lot of loose ends.
Not all of them, though. I’m still seriously interested in three of the players—and they like me, even if I’m an idiot about football.
But they—and their game—are subjects I’m willing to tackle. Three times over, if I can just get the chance.
And then my ex-boyfriend shows up, and he's got some seriously offensive plays. Too bad for him, I've learned a few of my own lately.
Second and Five Copyright © 2018 by Erin Hayes and Margo Bond Collins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.
Published by Bathory Gate Press
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author or authors.
Chapter 1
Six weeks ago, I knew nothing about football. Six weeks ago, I had never sat through a full game. Six weeks ago, I was Madison Harte, failed founder of a tech startup living in crazy-expensive San Francisco.
Football never played a role in my life at all. In fact, I downright hated it.
That was six weeks ago.
Today, I was Madison Harte, owner of the Yellowhammers in Birmingham, Alabama.
And I still knew jack shit about football.
“What the hell is a ‘pooch punt?’” I muttered as I flipped through my flashcards of football terms that Yellowhammer linebacker Clancy Drew had created for me, so I could learn some vocabulary.
“That’s an actual football term?” my best friend and roommate Ashley asked as she drove our moving truck down a deserted highway somewhere in New Mexico. We had packed up our tiny apartment in San Francisco and were moving into an apartment in a Birmingham suburb.
Driving this distance, especially with a moving truck, made me realize just how big the United States was. It felt like we’d been driving forever, and we still had a long way to go.
I frowned as I stared at Clancy’s neat handwriting. “Apparently? It says, ‘pooch punt.’”
In answer, my dog Winston looked up from his spot in the middle of our three-seater U-Haul and gave me the side eye, which, on a basset hound like him, looked like the most mournful expression ever.
I gave him a scratch between the ears. “I’d never kick you, buddy.” I flipped the card over, hoping it didn’t mean my boyfriend Andre Williamson was out on the field kicking dogs. Or that Clancy Drew or Rodney Nguyen, two other players I was attracted to, might be out pup-punting.
Animal abuse was a huge turn-off for me.
To my relief, the term wasn’t that.
“‘A short punt, designed to avoid kick returners,’” I read, cheerful despite the fact that I would have to look up “kick returner” later. Usually, me learning a football term meant that I had to look up five more.
“I swear, Clancy made that shit up,” Ashley grumbled.
I quirked an eyebrow at her. “I thought you were the one who watched football regularly.”
“Yeah, to look at their asses in tight spandex, not to talk about kicking dogs,” she countered. Driving always made her a little cranky. Then again, it made me cranky too, and we were going to have to get a car in Birmingham.
Yippee.
We hadn’t needed a car in San Francisco, given the excellent public transportation. Birmingham’s public transport...wasn’t excellent.
“But it’s not kicking dogs,” I replied, feeling the need to defend Clancy. “Isn’t that right, Winston?”
My dog just gave a gruff huff and laid his head back down on his paws. I could have left him with one of the teammates back in Birmingham, but I didn’t want to be apart from Winston for a week. I’d already been away from him too long when I first went to Birmingham, and, besides, he made this trip more interesting.
“He probably needs to pee,” Ashley said. “Hell, I need to pee. When’s the next gas station?”
I took her phone and searched for a place. “About twenty more miles?”
“Crap.” Ashley squirmed in her seat. “Maybe I should pull over to the side of the highway and pop a squat.”
“Isn’t that how horror movies start?” I asked. “Stopping on the side of a deserted highway? We’ll come back, and all our tires will be slashed, and we’ll be kidnapped by an inbred family that’s been living in the desert for years, and—”
“I think if I don’t pull over soon, it’s going to be a horror movie in here.” I felt the truck decelerate as Ashley directed the truck over to the side of the road. “We’ll be fine.”
Admittedly, I wasn’t so sure. I’d seen enough horror movies to be wary of stopping like this.
Apparently, my imagination could run away with me. After living most of my life in the big city, being in wide-open spaces like this always unnerved me. Birmingham was the biggest city in Alabama, and it was still too small for me.
That was one of my biggest worries about moving there.
The other three worries were Andre, Clancy, and Rodney.
Oh. And the whole owning a football team thing. That still made me a little nervous.
“Are you coming?” Ashley asked as she unbuckled her seatbelt.
“Nah, I’m fine.” Really, I was. At least, I could convince myself of that.
Ashley rolled her eyes. “Suit yourself. I’ll take Prince Charming for his potty break.” She latched Winston’s leash to his collar. “Be right back.”
She opened the door, dropped down from the truck onto the pavement, and helped Winston down since his legs were short and not meant for hopping out of large trucks. “Oh, you’re getting heavy, buddy,” she told him as she shut the door.
Leaving me alone in the car.
I lasted for all of ten seconds before I took out my phone and dialed the very top number. The phone rang three times before Andre’s calming baritone voice filled the speaker.
“Hey, babe,” he said, and just hearing him made my panties get wet. He sounded breathless, and I glanced at the clock on the dash, doing the math in my head. They were probably in the middle of practice. The Hammers’ first regular-season game was this weekend, giving Ashley and me five days to get back and unpacked before I had to play owner for the team.
<
br /> I combed a hand through my mousey brown hair. “Hey,” I said, glad that he was taking a moment from practice to talk to me.
There was a reason why I really, really liked him. And it wasn’t because his cock was huge. But that didn’t hurt, either.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, immediately picking up on my distress. “Did something happen?”
He was concerned about two twenty-something women driving a U-Haul across the country. A concern that I was now realizing might have been warranted.
“No, no, nothing happened.” I looked out the window and got a full view of Ash’s ass as she squatted in the shade of the truck. Winston was as far away from her as his leash would allow, sniffing at some sort of desert bush. “We’re just...out in the middle of nowhere, and it’s making me feel...”
“Anxious?” Andre finished for me. He was born and bred in Pittsburgh, so he was as used to the city life as I was. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. “Why didn’t you just hire movers, Madison?”
“Because I didn’t have the money,” I answered. Seriously, it was something like fifteen thousand dollars for cross-country movers. After being unemployed for six months, I didn’t exactly have the funds for that.
It wasn’t like I had any savings left.
“You could have used some of that sponsorship money,” Andre reasoned.
I sighed. It was a conversation that I’d had with him a few times—he wanted me to use some of the money that we had received from our first sponsor, Alabama Proud Laundry. “That money is meant for the team.”
“You are the team, Madison.” Damn, my heart melted at that. “And I’m sure none of the guys would fault you for taking care of yourself.”
“We’re good,” I told him.
“You’re calling me right now because you’re on the side of the road and freaked out. That doesn’t fit my definition of good.”
“I’m calling you because Ashley is taking a piss.”
Andre snickered softly. “Can’t wait until you’re back. I want to christen your new apartment properly.”
My cheeks warmed. “You made a religious pun. I think you’ve been in the Deep South too long.”
“Well, when you’re back, I plan on going further south,” he said. “All the way to bush country.”
I let out a low laugh. “I just shaved.”
He let out a groan. “Even better.”
Movement outside the window drew my eye over to Ashley who had just finished with her business, walking around the truck to get into the driver’s side.
“I’ve gotta go,” I said. “See you in a few days.”
“I’ll be ready.” I could almost hear the wink in his voice as he hung up.
Just as Ashley opened the truck door. “You were talking to Andre, weren’t you?” she asked with her uncanny ability to read my mind.
“Yep.” I couldn’t keep my grin under control.
“You guys are going to give me diabetes with your sickly-sweet stuff.” She shook her head as she bent down to pick up Winston, who let out a low whine as she struggled to get the seventy-pound basset hound into the truck. I leaned over and helped drag in my dog. When we decided to bring Winston along for a long car ride, we hadn’t planned on our truck being a huge step up.
Consider that a lesson learned.
I buckled Winston into his harness as Ashley pulled herself up into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition. Winston sneezed just as the truck turned on.
“Aw, are your allergies bothering you, buddy?” I baby-talked to Winston.
“Probably,” Ashley said. “He was sniffing some sort of bush for a long time.”
I burst out laughing. I think she realized what I thought was so funny, because she only shook her head and pulled away from the shoulder.
And we were back on the road. Thousands of miles ahead of us.
And no horror movie just yet.
Chapter 2
When I first saw the skyline of Birmingham six weeks ago, I thought it was the end of the world. I couldn't imagine a city any more different from San Francisco. It was like I'd stepped off the plane and ended up on a different planet. From the smattering of shorter buildings to its landlocked position and trees surrounding it, I missed my city by the bay.
I never felt more out of place than then, and I'd been run out of my tech startup by my ex-boyfriend.
Yet, arriving in Birmingham now, with all my stuff packed in the U-Haul, I felt an immediate sense of relief. It didn't feel like I was coming home—not yet, but I could see myself thinking that in the future. And that may have just been because I was excited to see how my team would do in the regular season. I truly believed that despite the fact that the Yellowhammers were the losingest team in the league, this would be the year that things turned around. Trust me, I wasn't narcissistic enough to think I was the only change and that they would be awesome because of me—but there were other changes in place, from firing Coach Mack, to Andre and the running back Rodney finally working together.
I loved the possibilities ahead of us.
And, yes, maybe I was damn excited to see Andre and the guys again.
"I hate this U-Haul," I lamented as I tried signaling to get the truck from the fast lanes over toward the exit. I had about a mile before I needed to get off I-20 and then I'd have to navigate this thing down city streets, and I wasn't about to try turning it around at any point.
After 2,400 miles, Ash and I had found that the majority of America's roads weren't cut out for large 14-foot trucks. "How the hell do truck drivers do this?" I asked.
"I don't know," Ashley said, sucking the last of her Diet Coke out of her Sonic cup. She watched my right side in the wing mirror, her knees drawn up to her chest. "Look out for this guy."
Another asshole swung around my right side and sped ahead, making merging over impossible. I cursed him under my breath as I put the pedal to the metal, and the truck lurched forward one mile per hour faster. "I almost prefer the open desert to this."
Ashley let out a short laugh. "Doubt it."
She knew me too well. I shuddered at the memory of being out there, and all the horror movies came back to me.
“This is as small a city as I’d be able to live in,” I said. “How’s my right side?”
Ashley peered out the window. “Go,” she said. “Gogogogogo.”
I went.
The truck swerved where I directed it, as if it had been nervously waiting like I’d been. Suddenly, I heard a chorus of honking from cars around me, and I watched as a car behind me veered to the left to get out of the way. A car went up on the shoulder on my right side and sped away.
“Ashley—” I said, feeling panic rising in me.
“You’re fine,” she said, waving me on. Something told me that she knew I was going to cut people off and piss off an entire city. What a way of welcoming the neighbors.
Welcome to Birmingham, Madison.
I exited the highway and let out a sigh as I pulled up to a light. With the hills in Birmingham, I realized that lights came up quickly on me.
Damn, I couldn’t wait to get to our apartment.
Somehow, I managed to get the truck down the roads to Vestavia Hills, one of Birmingham’s suburbs in the south, and up the street to our apartment building.
Our apartment made a U-shape off the winding road that led up to it. The building was old and everything in it was outdated, but it had a lot of charm, which was what drew Ashley and me to it.
And we had never lived in anything like it in San Francisco.
“Oh, thank fuck,” I sighed as I put the truck in park in the lot outside of the leasing office. “We made it.” We started this drive five days ago, and we finally made it. I didn’t ever want to drive a truck again. Or a car. Or even ride in anything like that.
Hell, I just wanted to curl up in my new bedroom and fall asleep. Forget moving my crap out of the truck and into my actual apartment.
“The next t
ime we do a cross-country move,” I told Ashley, “we’re selling our crap and flying.”
“I second that,” she said. She undid her seatbelt. “I’ll take Winston to check out his private bathroom.” She winked at me. “You know, because this will be where he does his business from here on out.”
Winston woofed and got to his feet. Between Ashley and me, we were able to get him out of the truck so that he could pee. I grabbed my purse and phone before heading into the office to pick up the keys.
I texted Andre: We’re here. Never want to drive again. I added a sleepy emoji and a puking emoji just to drive my point home.
Is your bed set up? Andre responded. And he added a winking-kissing emoji.
Instant panty-melt, and from a stupid text message. I had it bad.
Not yet. And I added a frowny face just for good measure before I opened the door to the leasing office and stepped inside the air-conditioned building.
Air-conditioning was so refreshing and something I hadn’t had in my San Francisco apartment. I could get used to that.
A plump woman about my age who was sitting at the desk perked up as I entered, and she hastily put away her own phone that she had been busily tapping on before I arrived.
“Can I help you?” Her voice was heavily accented, and she had a gap in her front teeth, which gave her character. Like this whole apartment complex.
I hadn’t met her before, but I instantly liked her. She had a bubbliness to her that I found appealing.
“Yeah, we’re moving in today,” I said, giving her a wide smile and taking her proffered hand. “I’m Madison, and—”
“Ah, yes! Madison Harte and Ashley Mack!” She pushed her rolling chair back to the filing cabinets and pulled out a folder. She flipped through it and glanced at a few pages before looking up. “I just need you and Ashley to sign the lease and pay your deposit.”
I took the money order out of my purse and handed it to her. The money for this deposit really hit me where it hurt. While it was split between Ashley and me, it was still a lot of money for me, and Winston’s pet deposit was extra.
