When the playboy quarterback of the hapless New York Templars is injured in a freak sexcapade, backup QB Quinn Novak picks up the ball and takes the team to the playoffs. There he attracts the attention of two other quarterbacks who’ve been rivals since high school, Mal Ryan of the Philadelphia Quakers and Tam Tarquin of the San Francisco Miners.<br><br>Quinn begins a volatile relationship with the narcissistic Mal and a loving one with the open-hearted Tam, keeping each secret from the other. What he doesn’t know is that the two have a complex sexual history of their own.

The Penalty for Holding

No, you do, Quinn thought, drawing a blanket up—again. But no matter how many blankets he drew up to his chin, he remained vigilantly awake.


“This is your captain speaking,” he heard over the public address system.


Oh, captain, my captain,Quinn thought—one with Walt Whitman—as he looked around at Tam and the other slackers snoring, tongues lolling. I await your instructions, Quinn added mentally.


“The South Pacific is notoriously turbulent so I’m going to keep the seat belt sign on for just a bit longer.”


I’ve never taken mine off, Quinn told him silently.


“Well, someone is prepared,” the flight attendant said as she tugged at Quinn’s secure belt. She smiled at him and he looked at her with the same wide-eyed gaze that greeted the flight officer who had reached out to him in the icy waters: “You’re going to make it, son. You’re going to be all right.”


Chapter 73