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Back Cross My Heart Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Prologue
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Chapter Forty-Seven
  50. Epilogue
  51. Author’s Note
  52. Acknowledgements
  53. Keep Reading …
  54. About the Publisher

Ideas, all kinds of them, kick up a dust storm in my brain. When the first whistle blows, and the draw is on, the ideas are swirling. But it’s the moment that May captures the ball, passes straight down the middle to Maddie, and then to Jordan, and at last, when the ball smashes its way into the net, that it all comes together.

‘HOLY SHIT!’ someone yells excitedly from behind me. The field vibrates with the thrum of the chant – ‘RIDE ON, COWGIRL!’ Coach was right. Maybe this started out about me, but it’ll have brought this town together for something much greater.

‘May will never buy it, you know,’ I shout over the cheers to Coach Dillon as the girls set up for their next formation.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure,’ the coach shouts back.

The Riders coast through the first game of their season against Arizona at Sedona, sitting pretty at a cool 12–7. It’s no secret they’re going to take this one home by the third quarter, but the audience hangs in there until the final buzzer sounds, and then orange and white towels go flying as the Oklahoma City Victory March plays, and the girls embrace on field. May, whose expression had been stony as a wall at the beginning of these four quarters, grins broadly along with her team. Coach’s hypothesis is great, of course, but May’s smile is the added perk I really, really wouldn’t mind.

It fades when she meets my eyes as the team separates and they head back towards the tunnel to the lockers once all the festivities slow down and fans start to trickle out. May’s one of the last to head back in. Coach Dillon stops her for just a moment before she hits the entrance to the tunnel. I can’t hear what they’re saying, as I’m somewhat occupied congratulating the girls as they file inside, but I have a little bit of an idea.

Then she comes my way, May, her braid only slightly matted, her pink goggles in hand, jersey and kilt dotted with grass stains, but attitude perfectly intact.

Said attitude is the reason I don’t expect anything at all when she jogs right up to me where I’m standing to the side of the tunnel about halfway inside. She gets close enough that I can make out barely discernible freckles across her nose, can count the empty piercing holes on her ears. Her dark eyebrows knit, and through gritted teeth, she chokes out the magic words.

‘Tell your PR team to back down. I’m in.’

Chapter Ten

The Game Plan

May