Dedication

To my dad, who shared his love of football with me, though he probably doesn’t realize it. I love you, please don’t read this book. Especially chapters six, eight, and ten.

1

DERRICK

“Why, for the love of pizza, are we up at the asscrack of dawn on our first morning off in a month?” Soren yawned loudly next to me then propped his feet on the chair in front of him.

The smallish auditorium had stadium seating, but Soren was no average human. My ride or die tight end had the fastest, and longest, legs in college football. With his feet up, his knees nearly touched his chest.

I leaned back and tried to find a comfortable position in a chair half my size. “I’m here because I promised my sister I’d finish school. Last time I checked, you weren’t in this class.”

Soren slapped my back. “I go where you go. How else am I going to get the elite rank of ladies that follow you around like horny sheep?”

“Not an image I wanted, man.”

He grinned, unrepentant. “Not my problem. Now explain.”

I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my tired eyes. “This is the last required class I need to graduate.”

“At eight a.m.?”

“All the sections were full, so Coach pulled some strings and got me in.” I eyed his cramped position in the quickly filling room. “Which means you probably shouldn’t stay.”

“I’m not a total dick. I’ll leave when someone needs my seat.”

My spine tingled in foreboding, the same feeling I got when a linebacker was about to flatten me. I scanned the almost-full auditorium, but the closest threat was the trio of blondes whispering in the row ahead of us.

“Do you think it’s really him? I heard he’s already signed with Dallas.”

“I heard he won’t even look at a girl during the season.”

“I bet I could change his mind.”

I shook my head at the last one who wasn’t even pretending to be quiet. The semester hadn’t even officially started yet, and the ball bunnies were circling. The rumors weren’t entirely wrong. I tended to ignore the ladies during the season because they proved more trouble than they were worth.

The girls I’d met all wanted the prestige of my reputation without accepting the time I had to put in to be the best. They demanded more than I was willing to give them and cut their losses when they realized I wasn’t going to change my mind, despite what the girl in front of me thought.

Most of the time, it was easier to just skip the drama.

Soren checked them out, then dismissed them with an unimpressed look. “Ignore their bullshit. You’re meant for greater things. Namely, getting my ass a championship before you abandon me to the wilds of the pros.”