Patton Cooper won three national championships as the starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Marauders, but that didn’t stop them from trading him to Phoenix without so much as a warning. At thirty-two, he finds himself weighed down by old injuries and forced to start over again as a backup quarterback for an untried rookie. Deeply hurt by the betrayal of both his team and his ex-lover, Patton keeps to himself and takes what solace he can in football.<br><br>Cornerback DeShawn Jones has loved two things in his life -- football and Patton Cooper. It seems like his dreams have come true when he’s drafted to play for the Phoenix Wildcats, until he realizes the coach has no intention of letting him start, and his childhood hero is a withdrawn, wary man. But DeShawn refuses to give up on his dreams of playing, or his hope of reaching Patton.<br><br>A tentative connection forms between the two men, but the pressures of the game may be too much for the relationship to withstand. Especially when DeShawn is given the chance of a lifetime while Patton struggles not to relive the mistakes from his past.

Mr. November

Should they talk about this in the morning? If he handled it incorrectly, would he be fucking over his chances of things ever escalating between them? Did he even want things to escalate? Really want it, or was he just lonely and horny? But his own defects were only half the equation. It didn’t matter what he wanted with DeShawn if DeShawn didn’t feel the same way about him.


But the possibility of something goodfinally happening existed. As soon as the thought occurred to him, Patton knew it was wrong. Good things didn’t just happen to him, like he was the passive receptacle of happiness. He made things happen. He was the fucking quarterback. That was his whole point. Patton leaned forward to consider DeShawn’s lax form, the feeling returning to his extremities. He’d been letting things happen to him since the day Chris told him he was going to be part of a deal with Phoenix. Perhaps DeShawn’s attitude had been the right one all along.


Chapter 19