Fourth and Falling (The Next Play Series)

As quarterback for the Portland Rush, I make split-second decisions under crushing pressure. I read defenses like books. I adjust. I fix. I lead. I always do.

But Sutton Price, the opinionated bartender who glares at me like I’m everything she hates?

She’s the one play I can’t read.

When she looks at me across the bar, those dark brown eyes cut through my carefully constructed image. To her, I’m just another privileged athlete while real people, like her, struggle. She doesn’t see me, she sees what I represent.

Somewhere between our late-night talks at the bar, and a few shared moments together, something shifts. I’m falling for her, and falling hard, but the weight she carries—the double shifts, that wall of mistrust, the shadows that cross her face when she thinks no one’s watching—is heartbreaking. I wish I could ease her burdens, but when my world collides with her past, I learn one of my hardest lessons.

There are some plays in life I simply can’t call and problems I can’t fix.

I know I can’t shield Sutton from the inevitable rain but I can stand beside her in her storm. I can be the safe harbor she’s never had, the one person who won’t walk away when the thunder comes. And God help me, I’ll wait through a thousand storms for her.

She may not believe in safe spaces, but I’ll spend every damn day for as long as it takes proving she’s found one with me