by Erin Hayes
“Take care of her,” Andre said to Clancy, and for a moment, I realized that everyone was concerned about me. Me. While Andre was the one with the broken hip. Was I that broken of a woman to where everyone thought I was the one who needed to be taken care of?
Clancy took my hand. “Come on, Madison.”
Numbly, I followed as he led me from the room and out into the hallway where Ashley and Noel were sitting with a few other football players and Winston. I’d claimed he was an emotional support dog. Because he was, dammit.
Without a word, I knelt, and my dog waddled up to me and I threw my arms around him. I buried my face in the loose skin of his neck, glad to have my big, grumpy basset hound with me.
“How was he?” Ashley asked, her voice rough.
“Pretty upbeat for a guy who has a broken hip,” Clancy said without humor in his voice. He sounded tired now, and I looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking.
“That was such a gnarly tackle.” Ashley shuddered at the memory. We all did.
“The news is saying that Coach Mack and Michael Meeks are suspended for a season,” Noel said. “Possibly out the league.”
“Good,” Ashley muttered. “Fucking creep.”
“Well,” Carrie said with finality, taking out her pack of cigarettes with one hand while pulling out her lighter from her jeans pocket, “I’m going to go outside for a smoke.” She eyed Rodney. “Care to join? I won’t tell the athletic trainers, and I think we could all use a little release.”
“No thanks,” Rodney answered in croak, speaking for the first time. He shook his head. “I quit smoking.”
Carrie raised a quizzical eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything as she turned and left, already putting a cigarette in her mouth before she even got outside.
I stared at Rodney, but he didn’t say anything further. In fact, if anything, he was avoiding my gaze. I let out an annoyed sound, and I stood up, taking Winston’s leash with me. I looped it around my wrist and went to go stand next to Clancy.
“Hey,” he whispered, leaning into me. “It’s going to be okay.”
“He was so hurt,” I told him, stating the obvious. “I don’t see how he can recover from it.”
“You’d be surprised what doctors can do these days,” he said. “Andre is in good hands.” I looked up at him, and he gave me a light kiss on the lips. “Have faith, Madison.”
“But, what about the team?” I asked, which was the stupidest thing to be worried about at the moment. But I couldn’t help it. “We don’t have a starting quarterback, we have the playoffs ahead of us, and everyone here is looking to us to win, and—”
“Madison,” Clancy said, and the Southern lilt of his voice grounded me. “Don’t freak out until you have a reason to freak out. Well,” he smiled apologetically, “don’t freak out more until you have more reason to freak out.”
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “All right.”
The door opened, and the doctor came out. “He wants to speak to you.” He gestured for us to go in. Clancy and I exchanged glances before we ducked into the room.
“Shut the door,” Andre said. “I know the media’s out there, and I just...” His voice trailed off. He looked a lot paler than when we left, and I wondered just how awful the prognosis was. He just seemed lost, and my heart broke for him.
The light box was on, and I had a glance at the x-ray that was still on it. Even from across the room, I could see that Andre’s hip didn’t look right. The ball and socket didn’t look like a ball and socket anymore, and there was a well-defined fracture that split through the bone.
“They want to do surgery right away,” Andre said in a rough voice. “The longer we wait, the more risk we run of blood supply not getting to the rest of my femur.”
“What kind of break is it?” Clancy asked.
Andre smirked humorlessly. “A femoral neck fracture.” He held up a hand and covered it with his other hand. “Basically the ball of my ball-and-socket joint is snapped off from the rest of my leg bone.” He flicked his wrist, creating the image of his broken hip.
I winced. “So what are they going to do with the surgery?”
“The doctor wanted to do a partial hip replacement,” Andre said. “Told him no, but they still might have to, once they get in there.”
I clenched my hands into fists.
It was a surgery that I’d only heard of older people having. Not young football players. Not my Andre.
“I should be able to walk after 4 months.” Andre said and let out a bitter laugh. “So I’ll miss the playoffs.”
“We’ll do you proud,” Clancy said, his own voice rough with emotion. “And we’ll be ready for when you can join us again.”
“Well, that’s the thing.” Andre looked up at us, his eyes shining with tears. “The doctor said that I can’t play football ever again.”
Epilogue
Rodney Nguyen was not a jealous man.
That’s what he told himself anyway.
After all, growing up in the Pacific Northwest with his family who owned a convenience store in Tacoma, he’d led a charmed childhood. He always got straight As. He played football from peewee all the way through high school and college, meaning to shirk Asian stereotypes in every way he could. He was Vietnamese and he could play with the best of them and be a role model for all kids who didn’t think they stood a chance in football.
He wanted to show them that you could do whatever you set your mind to.
His parents wanted him to go to medical school, but he defied them and was drafted into a team in Texas just out of college. His mother and father weren’t happy about it, despite his seven-figure contract.
“You’re a disappointment,” his mother had told him. “What are you going to do once the league is finished with you by the time you’re thirty?”
Rodney remembered the argument that transpired afterwards, and they had parted on bad terms. Christmas and Thanksgiving hadn’t been the same since.
At first, Rodney’s career in football was fine. He’d played in Texas for a few years before he was traded. And then traded again. He’d been bumped from team to team for a while, until he wound up on the Yellowhammers two years ago. They were the worst team in the league and played like amateurs. Rodney saw his chance to make an impact on the team.
And yet, there was Andre.
Such an arrogant asshole. He was the quarterback to Rodney’s running back. The team captain. Charismatic for the television cameras. And a lot of the team wanted to listen to him, to have him lead them.
There wasn’t a time when Rodney didn’t want to punch him in his smug face.
So he hung around the sidelines, arguing with Andre every chance he could to assert his dominance. He knew it was stupid. But that was the way life was with Andre. And that’s how it had been for two years.
Then Madison Harte showed up and things changed.
He remembered the first time he saw her, outside the Clucky Cowboy. She had looked so unsure of herself, so frightened by the whole thing, he had to speak to her. He saw a lot of himself in Madison, actually. How she defied stereotypes and was headstrong enough to fight for what she wanted.
He’d been immediately drawn to her.
And then she had to go and sleep with Asshole Andre. And they rubbed it in his face every chance they got.
He thought that Clancy’s hopes were dashed as well, since he knew that Clancy liked her, too. They’d even talked about it.
But now, it seemed like Madison was sleeping with him, too. And both Andre and Clancy were fine with it.
Rodney couldn’t wrap his head around it. How any guy was fine with his woman sleeping with another man. How they were good to be in the same room as each other. Or even play on the same team as each other.
There wasn’t a fat chance in hell that Rodney would ever be fine with that.
Yet, this was Madison. And he couldn’t help but feel like this was working because it was her.
&nb
sp; There was just something about Madison.
She had turned the team around, and, somehow, the Hammers were in the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, no one could have believed this was possible.
And then, Andre’s injury happened.
Rodney had no doubt that this would impact Andre’s football career. He’d taken some pre-med classes in college—he knew how bad it was.
Standing out in the hallway, he watched as Clancy and Madison came out of Andre’s room once again. Clancy looked like absolute hell, and Madison looked like she’d been bawling her eyes out. They went to Carrie and spoke with the coach, who had returned from her smoke break. She listened to them for a few minutes, her expression grim, and she kept glancing over at Rodney, her frown deepening every time.
Madison eventually broke down into fresh tears, and Clancy wrapped his arms around her. Rodney felt a pang of jealousy at that.
No. Rodney wasn’t a jealous man. He quashed the thought as soon as it started.
“Nguyen,” Carrie called, coming over to him. “Can I have a word with you?”
“I don’t think I can stop you,” he said, and Carrie didn’t look happy about his smartass comment. Fuck, why was he such a jerk?
“Well,” Carrie said, putting her hands in her pockets, “you’re getting your wish.”
“What wish is that?”
“You’re the new team captain.”
Rodney frowned. “What?”
His coach crossed her arms. “Andre is out for the postseason. Out for good, actually.”
Rodney clenched his jaw. “Wait, out for good?”
Carrie nodded. “He won’t be able to play ever again.” She patted his shoulder. “Congrats, captain. This is everything you wanted, isn’t it?”
Everything he wanted?
No.
Rodney had wanted to be team captain. He wanted to be the most popular player on the team. And he wanted to show Andre that he was the better athlete.
Not like this, though. Never like this.
He looked across the room to see Madison watching him as Clancy embraced her. She watched him with her keen eyes, somehow seeing him and seeing through him.
What did she think about him in these moments? Why did he care? She was with two other men—he shouldn’t care one bit.
But he did care. He wanted to do anything to make her happy again.
And here he was, taking Andre’s place.
He felt like the biggest piece of shit.
He may have gotten his wish. But he felt empty inside.
And that made all the difference.
DYING TO FIND OUT WHAT happens next with Madison and the Yellowhammers? Be sure to pre-order Third and Goal!
Being in relationships with three men is a whole new field of play.
My life recently has been one giant Hail Mary—not least of all my football team’s surprising move into post-season games.
I thought the worst was over when the three players I’m interested in—Andre, Clancy, and Rodney—ran off my ex-boyfriend when he showed up looking to rekindle our relationship. Hard pass. And not the football kind.
A new coach, some sponsors, and a couple of hot touchdowns at home from two of my guys, and everything seemed to be falling into place.
But now my quarterback is out of the game, I’m fumbling one of the sponsorships, and the third guy I want apparently has some concerns about the others’ time of possession—of me, not the football.
And he really wants to see if he can score at home as well as on the field.
I'm going to have to bring my A-game if I want this all to turn out right.
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IF YOU HAVEN’T READ the first book, be sure to get it now, too!
First and Ten
When Madison Harte inherits a football team with three hot players who all want her, there’s one problem: when it comes to America’s favorite sport, she’s clueless.
I have the worst luck. Failed tech startup? Check. Cheating ex-boyfriend? Check. No idea what to do next? Check.
Then my Uncle Dusty passes away and leaves a whole football team to me. Never mind that I’ve never even seen a game. Who has time for that, right?
But I can sell the team and turn my life around, so I fly from San Francisco to Birmingham, Alabama, where I find a whole new level of football obsession—and start to develop a fascination of my own. Mostly with the three players who are very, very interested in me.
I never expected to find a team of my own. Or that there would be so many obstacles in our way.
Luckily, Madison won’t have to choose just one man in this contemporary reverse harem where Friday Night Lights and Bridget Jones collide and where—hallelujah—it’s still raining men.
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About the Authors
About Erin Hayes
Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books.
She works as an advertising copywriter by day, and she's an award-winning New York Times Bestselling Author by night. She has lived in New Zealand, Hawaii, Texas, Alabama, and now San Francisco with her husband, cat, and a growing collection of geek paraphernalia.
You can reach her at [email protected] and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.
Read More from Erin
www.erinhayesbooks.com
About Margo Bond Collins
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author Margo Bond Collins is a former college English professor who, tired of explaining the difference between "hanged" and "hung," turned to writing romance novels instead. (Sometimes her heroines kill monsters, too.)
Read More from Margo
www.MargoBondCollins.net
