The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player, #1)

by C.R. Jane

“You don’t really have a choice,” I whispered to her, and she scoffed…because she knew I wasn’t joking.

“Baby, will you marry me?” I asked loudly—for propriety’s sake.

I grabbed her hand and slid the ring onto her finger, my hands steady but my heart feeling like it was about to skip out of my chest. And when she kissed me again, tears streaming down her face, it felt like everything—every plan, every dream, every bit of who I was—had finally fallen into place.

I’d asked him how he wanted to celebrate winning the National Championship. His answer… Fucking me on the fifty-yard line at the Tennessee stadium when we got home.

“That’s my good girl,” he murmured, leaning over me and biting down softly on the sensitive part of my neck.

For the longest time, I thought loneliness was just…inevitable. A constant I would carry in my heart wherever I went.

After losing Ben, and then Gray, with my family splintered in ways I couldn’t fix, I didn’t think I’d ever find that feeling again.

I’d found m...

Parker didn’t just see the broken, empty parts of me—he stepped into them, filled them with something I hadn’t realized I needed. He made me feel like my heart could beat steady again, like I could let go of the past and let something new, something ...

In his arms, I knew I wasn’t alone anymore. And I was ready, achingly ready, to start my happily ever after…with him.

“With the first pick of this year’s NFL draft, the Dallas Renegades select…” He paused as we all held our breath. “Parker Davis.”

Parker glanced over at his mom, who was standing beside us, misty-eyed, proud…and the healthiest I’d seen her. She’d made it her goal to be here for this, working hard every day so she could leave her treatment center and be here for Parker.

“I’m so proud of you, son,” she said, her face beaming. “Your dad—he would have been so proud, too.”

Walker and Cole came over, each of them giving him a hug…while Parker still held onto my hand.

“Parkie-Poo, showing us up,” Cole said with a grin, like he hadn’t just won a Grammy two weeks earlier.

“Someone had to make this family legitimate,”...

“So cocky already. You’re going to be insufferab...

“Looks like Dallas just got an upgrade in the Davis brother departme...

“Tell me that when you’ve won a Lombardi Trophy, like I’ve ...

Parker stepped up, took the hat from the commissioner, and looked out over the crowd, grinning at Matty and Jace across the room before his eyes found me again. He winked.

He was going to give me a heart attack one of these days. But what a way to go.

In celebration of my surgery with the country’s foremost hand surgeon—that he had found and paid for as a surprise—he’d replaced the one he’d already bought me with my dream piano.

The surgery had been a success. I still had tremors occasionally, and I wasn’t going to be playing professionally like I’d once dreamed, but I was able to play whole songs now. Which had greatly improved my mental state.

It was another thing he’d given me that I’d t...

I kept my eye on Casey, who was swaying dangerously while holding up Nat as they tried to spell H-O-T-T-O-G-O while incredibly drunk.

Matty and I were laughing as we watched. Her girl’s night was in full, wild swing, and I had designated myself as my girlfriend’s personal watchdog, making sure nothing happened to her in the process.

“Why can’t you make a bet with me?” I asked, offended.

“Because the bet is on you. I’m just wondering how long you’re going to be able to hold yourself back from punching that guy who’s staring at Casey’s ass.”

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Matty and I exchanged a glance, the beginnings of a smirk already forming on Matty’s lips.

“And what, or rather who, did you just do?”

“You’re never going to believe this.”

“You got funny since you went to the bathroom? Yeah, I’m probably not going to believe that,”

Jace didn’t even blink. His eyes were still wide…kind of craz...

“I just…I just found the love ...

Matty and I stared at him, both of us trying—and failing—not to...

“Yep. Right out back. Best fifteen minutes of my life—and don’t give me a hard time about fifteen minutes. I had to work my ass off to even last that long.” He sighed, staring down at the bar like he was lost in a daydream. “She was perfect.”

“Gentlemen,” he announced, holding the card up like he’d just been handed the Holy Grail. “Do you know what this is?”

“This—this is a sign.”

“Nope. I’m telling you. Mark my words. I’m gonna find her.”