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

by Kate Stewart

I don’t have to play poster boy to play ball. I’m not going to campaign myself because I’m not a man who minces words. I don’t tap dance for attention I don’t want. I don’t need to be anyone’s favorite anything; I just need to play ball, keep my head down, and get through this season.

Not every dream is realized. That’s the hard truth, and the lesson I’ve come away with and survived. Not all hard work pays off. Not every guy gets the girl. And sometimes, even the most carefully laid plans get changed, interrupted or abandoned because life has other ideas.

But any new dream I’ve conjured up has always involved Harper, dead center. I can’t imagine her out of any scenario that won’t complete me. And I can’t will myself to forget her. I don’t want to.

“Speak up, Dove, or you’ll be forced to watch.”

She’s light, and you can’t hide light, you can’t hold it and keep it. It’s unattainable. And maybe that’s what Harper is for me—a light I can’t keep.

Years ago, I swore no man would ever take precedence over my dancing career. This step makes me a liar. But I’m no longer just a dancer in love with a football player. I’m a woman in love with a man I can’t and refuse to live without.

I can feel him slipping away with every second that ticks by. It becomes painfully clear to me that in order to prove I’m ready to commit, I need to do the one thing I’ve failed to do with Lance when things got hard—stay.

You need to stop living for the what ifs and start living in the what is, one breath, one step at a time.’

I cling to him, knowing that from this moment forward, all my steps will always lead back to him. This isn’t commitment. This is forever.

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

All of the fights, the sacrifice, all of the hurt, the heartache, the need, the failures, the faith he lost, the faith he found, it all comes down to this moment. The moment he thought impossible until he saw it for himself and earned it.

This love I feel for her has taken me to incredible heights, and right now, I feel the highest I’ve ever been. Her love has also pressed me, pushed me outside of being comfortable, built me up, tortured me, but not once has it ever left me. It’s the most spectacular fucking emotion imaginable and I could not, would not, have ever felt it like this if it wasn’t for her.

I didn’t think I knew my roommates so well. Didn’t think I had a thing in common with them. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. Though our stories are vastly different, we all longed for the same thing—to belong—all the while figuring out who we were, trying to prove ourselves and win the affection of the women who would help us figure it all out. We may not have had the friendships we do now, but I have zero doubts crossing paths the way we did was a coincidence. Our stories stemmed from the same place, intertwined, and wouldn’t be what they are if it weren’t for each other.