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the Phoenix Wildcats, until he realizes the coach has no intention of letting him start, and his childhood hero is a withdrawn, wary man.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

It never occurred to DeShawn not to run to Patton. He pushed his Prius as hard as he could, his speedometer inching up over one-hundred miles per hour once he was safely beyond the city limits. He’d risk the ticket and explain to the cop that it was a matter of life and death. He hadn’t known Patton for long, but he’d never heard the other man sound so scared, his voice shaking and low beneath ragged gasps. Why was he breathing so hard? He didn’t even breathe like that after Coach had them running sprints in the punishing Arizona sun.


It should have taken him three hours to get to Desert Center, but DeShawn made it in a little under two. It wasn’t difficult to find the hotel Patton referred to, or Patton’s truck. DeShawn said a quick prayer of gratitude for that—his phone completely lost signal and he didn’t want to make Patton wait for a single unnecessary second.


Chapter 23