The Guy in the Middle (The Underdogs, #3)

by Kate Stewart

“Well, it’s not like you’re the most receptive man in the world with your mastery of resting bastard face.”

“Let me get this straight. You woke up in the middle of the night and took a shot of my jersey and ass and sent them straight to my fucking coach!?” “That’s, uh, that sounds creepy.” “Yeah, well, sorry, maybe I don’t understand. I’ve never slept with a woman and Snapchatted her ass to my brother. What were you thinking?”

“Oh my God! Harper Jean!” “What in the hell?” My dad’s voice booms from the same room. “Well there goes that theory. Babe, you’re twenty. Stand firm. He knew you wouldn’t be innocent forever.” “Harper! Get in here, right now!” “I took a lover,” she giggles. “You idiot.”

“What if this moment, right here, is the moment that changes your life?”

“I’ll get better at the Shakespeare, I promise.” “Coach’s daughter falls for a football player. Like how cliché can it get?” I lift my palms. “We can wear matching Christmas sweaters, adopt a dog, and take ‘almost a family’ photos.”

“She’s a six at most, why are you wasting time with a six?” “Add five to that.” “What?” “She’s my eleven.”

“You know you gave me…,” I breathe through the pain, “you gave me a love story, a real love story, even if it doesn’t have the ending I was hoping for.”

“So, what ju going to do? Ju going to go to Texas and have his massive babies and trow it all to shit?” “No, I’m not. Stop spitting hatorade. He’s in town, and he wants to catch up.”

“You see, my love, it’s a cruel world without you in it.”

His face falls as I lift, so my truth hits his lips. “My leaving had little to do with dancing, despite what I promised myself. I wanted your love so much more than the look on your face right now. But what you just did to me…” I lift my chin in defiance, showing him his mirror, “makes you the bully.” All the fight leaves me as I utter my defeat, “no longer worthy of this ugly girl’s love.”

“She told me, ‘Harper, you aren’t going to get everywhere at once. You need to stop living for the what ifs and start living in the what is, one breath, one step at a time.’ And that stuck with me. It changed me. It slowed me. And in a way it saved me. If it hadn’t, you wouldn’t have met the version of me that you did.”