Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals, #3)

by Kandi Steiner

Because all my life, football had been my one and only focus. It was all I cared about. It was my reason for waking up in the morning, and the only thought that consumed me when I laid my head down at night. It was my lifeline, my muse, the center of my attention. But in one fatal moment, that focus shifted. Julep Lee was the coach’s daughter. She was completely off limits. And yet, I knew right then and there that I had to have her.

“Trust me — you and I are nothing alike.” “Oh, I have a feeling you might be wrong about that, Julep Lee.”

“It’s kind of strange, you know. That you’re a college quarterback and you like to garden.” “And you’re a college athletic trainer who likes to pole dance.”

“Aren’t you going to help me shower?” Julep blinked, and then scoffed, rolling her eyes and turning for the door again. “You’re lucky I don’t drown you in the shower.”

There was more emotion rolling off that woman in those few seconds than I’d seen in the entire time I’d known her.

“My dad and sister disappeared when I was thirteen,” I explained. “And my mom took her life a year later.”

haven’t been able to take my eyes off you since the moment you walked through that door tonight.”

“Stop trying to laugh me off,” he said, voice reverberating through my ribcage. “And look at me when I tell you how enamorating you are.” “That’s not a word.” “It is now,” he argued. “And it was made for you.”

He lived for the loved ones he’d lost. I self-destructed for mine.

“Because in the end, we all die. And to be honest, I can’t wait for my time to come. I can’t wait to be free.”

“It does matter,” he breathed. “You matter.”

“We don’t get to choose our parents, and sometimes, I think we forget they’re humans,”

“You were the last thing I expected this season.” “Sorry to disrupt your plans.” “Feel free to disrupt the rest of my life.”

“You can hold true on all your threats,” I continued. “You can take everything else away from me. But you can’t take her.”

“I love your daughter, Coach Lee,” I said, though my eyes didn’t leave her. “I love her, and I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks about it. My heart used to belong to football, but now it belongs to her. And none of this,” I added, throwing my hands up. “None of it means a damn thing without her.”

will be here,” I said, tugging her hands to my chest again. “Every day. I’ll be right by your side reminding you that you matter, that you are needed, that there is a reason to have hope and a reason to live. I’ll be here reminding you that for me? You are that reason.”

“But if you even think about hurting her, I will murder you and go to jail for life. Don’t make me do that to my wife, you understand me?”

“I’d choose losing it all over losing you for a lifetime.”

“Marry me, Julep. Marry me, and I promise to take you to every yard sale we can find in every state we go to. Marry me, and I will grow a garden in your name. Marry me, and I promise to set up a chrome pole in the middle of every piece of property we own.” She laughed, though it was garbled with tears. “Marry me,” I repeated, swiping the fresh tears away. “And I will spend the rest of my life loving you. No matter how long that is. Every minute I am here on Earth is yours. And after that, too.”