All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.

Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

Kindle Edition

Want her mailing list?
Click here!

Find me on Facebook
!

To subscribe to the Swirl Saturdays newsletter, click here:
http://eepurl.com/bw7uif

CHAPTER ONE

“Renata Young,” I say to my cousin, Wingate. I’m sitting on the brick wall in front of the dorm at Brooks University. Football has started up, which is fine by me. It gave me a full scholarship, and it’s something I love to do. But I could have played football at a hundred universities in the United States. I had offers from every place I applied—and some I didn’t. My whole career has been planned out for me—college football, then the NFL. And after that, a cushy retirement in a big house somewhere with a great view. Yeah, it didn’t matter where I went to school. So I chose Brooks—because Renata did.

“I thought you were over trying to convince her to go out with you, Mack?” Wingate is lying back on the wall, one leg crossed over the other, dark sunglasses covering his eyes. He’s already burned twice from being out here in California, so there’s a big dollop of sunscreen on his nose. “She went with you to prom, but that was all she did. Said we were all best friends, and that was enough for her.” Still lying down, Wingate shrugs. “It probably freaks her out that you followed her here.”

“She’s going to be my wife
and
my manager. Or else I don’t have a single chance of succeeding in the NFL. Renata is my reason, man.”

“You keep telling yourself that, cuzzo. I’ll get you to the NFL if it’s the last thing I do. You just have to survive four years of college and not go insane on all the women chasing you.”

“I don’t notice them much,” I mumble. There are plenty of girls. Older ones, freshmen like us, girls in my dorm, girls at parties. They’re chasing after me at all times, asking me for a date, to go to sorority formals, to take them out to the bars even though I’m only nineteen. It helps that I’m tall, and Renata did say once that my face made me look like a male model. I didn’t take it as a compliment at the time, but right now, I’m getting the picture. Not only am I on the college team, I’m the best damn linebacker they’ve seen in a generation. I’m also pretty.

But it doesn’t matter.

“She won’t say yes, Mack. It’s not that she doesn’t
like
you. She just doesn’t want to fool with you because you’re a prima donna football star, and she doesn’t have time for that. She’s in the business school, and she’s got a lot of shit going on at home with her family. Apparently her dad has roped your dad into doing something with the farms. Call me crazy, but I think they’re both insane. And I think Renata’s insane for caring about any of that farm stuff. If she wasn’t making straight As on everything, I’d have a sit down with her and tell her not to pay any attention to what’s going on at—” Wingate stops and looks up at me, tilting his dark sunglasses down. I can’t help but grin as he looks up at me. “What’s that look on your face?” he asks.

“She finally said yes,” I tell him, kicking my heels against the brick. One of the freshmen girls from my hall passes by and waves at me flirtatiously. I give her a thrill and wave back, but she’s not my type. There’s only one woman who is.

“Yes to what? Yes to going steady with you or—whatever y’all say?” Wingate still has his sunglasses tilted down on the end of his nose.

“It’s not the 1950s, Wing. No one is going steady with anyone, anymore. She said yes to a date. One date. I’m taking her out to Michael’s for dinner, and then we’re going to meet up with Kaden and whichever girl he’s seeing right now. He’s been seeing a lot of women recently and you know, I feel
bad
for him because he keeps mentioning this girl from back home and—well the girl I want is right here.”

“You feel
sorry
for him? I don’t understand straight people. And I don’t understand football people. Y’all in those fancy dorms and shit, with women falling all over you. Seems like you’d get the idea to live the big life, but I keep meeting these fake players like you. All you really want to do is settle down and have like a zillion kids with your high school sweetheart.”

“High school sweetheart isn’t quite right. Renata is more like—”

“The girl who never wanted to take it farther than friendship, yet somehow you’ve got her convinced that it’s a grand old idea to try for something more now that you’re king of the campus and have like sixty women following you wherever you go?” Wingate pulls his sunglasses back down over his eyes and crosses his arms. “I don’t know man. Doesn’t sound like a good idea. She’s serious about her life. About her job. About everything.”

“You’re saying I’m not?” I wave at several freshmen girls as they walk by. It does make my head a little big that I’ve got women staring at me everywhere I go. It makes it worse that I live in the best dorm on campus, while Renata lives in a triple dorm room with two other people watching her every move. Seems like my single room and the catered food and all the attention could go to better use. Even though I want to punch my cousin in his pretty face, I
get
what he’s saying and why he’s saying it. I get it instinctively. This is a career path, yes. But it’s not
serious
, not like marketing or public relations or the MBA Ren is planning on getting at Berkeley after this four-year stint is over. I’m just planning on playing ball and living in a big house.

The thing is, Wingate doesn’t
get
one other thing, not like I do. There is one thing I’m serious about, one thing I’ve always been serious about. It’s Renata Young. It’s keeping her close to me each and every day of her life. It’s growing old alongside her and having at least three kids running around that big house. It’s sharing my career with her and listening to her advice, because I know she’ll have plenty.

It’s every man’s dream—or at least it should be—when he meets a woman who’s smarter and savvier and more ruthless than he’ll ever be. And beautiful. My God, so beautiful. She’s got the full, red lips of an angel—and the body of a sinner. Somehow she always manages to look professional, even when she’s wearing jeans and flip flops. That’s most everyone’s uniform in California, all year round. But she pulls it off with a swagger that I find unbelievable. It’s like she’s not even
human
with how good she looks in a simple t-shirt and jeans.

And I can’t wait until I have enough money to spoil her, to buy her whatever she wants and dress her in all the finer things. Not that I know anything about that stuff, but I
know
her clothes are mostly from Walmart—because mine are too. What other options do two people from Tick Bite, North Carolina have?

I guess Wingate is letting it stand, shrugging off the possibility that I’ll ever make it with Renata Young. She’s been our best friend for years, but she’s never wanted to mess with a football player. I caught her in a moment of weakness, though, and I intend to take advantage. I’ll pull out all the charm, make sure she knows how I feel, now and forever. And I’ll always be there, no matter what.

The clock chimes one, and I know both of us need to be getting to class. After that, I’m back to my dorm, getting ready for the date I’ve been wanting for years. Tonight is the night that I start the rest of my life with Renata, and I don't intend to ever let go.

I just have to get through this night—and hell, through the next three years and some—without messing anything up.

Then, on our last night of school, we’ll be engaged.

And God willing, I’ll prove to her each and every day of our lives that I was the right choice, that getting away from our trifling parents and their farm was the right thing to do, and that spending our lives together as we take off in our careers was the very thing both of us needed most.

I walk to class with a saunter—because I know this is the first day of the rest of my life.

CHAPTER TWO