GrayG: Miss you.
IvyMac: Miss you too.
A few days and several texts later…
Gray
If life has taught me anything it’s to appreciate what you’ve got. Take something for granted and it could be gone before you even realized what you had. I learned that lesson from my mom, though I wish every day that I hadn’t. One day she was baking me apple cake and reminding me to study after football practice, the next day she’s pulling me into the den to tell me she had cancer. Hell, I remember every word of the conversation. Every fucking word punched into my flesh as if they were nails. But particularly I remember how she ended it: Live every day to the fullest, Gray. Appreciate life to the fullest, promise me that.
And I have. I still do. Enjoy the moment. Revel in it. Soak up life and fuck the rest.
It’s simple, really. I party because it’s fun. Enjoy women because I love them. Love their sweet scent, their musical laughter, and their soft curves. Play football because it’s the greatest fucking game on earth. And it’s worked for the most part. I’ve had fun.
Only now living in the moment is getting harder to do. I find my attention wandering to the future. I find myself wanting that distant future now. Here. Because of Ivy Mackenzie.
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Author’s Note
One of the first lines I wrote about Dex appears in THE HOOK UP, when Drew wonders if Dex is “pulling a Tebow”, which was Drew’s way of saying he suspected that Dex was a virgin. Until then, I hadn’t considered writing a virgin hero, but the idea stuck and fit with Dex’s quiet, reserved nature.
Later, when I was doing research for THE GAME PLAN, I came across a story about the infamous cheating site, Ashley Madison, offering a reward of one million dollars to anyone who could claim they’d taken Tebow’s virginity. It was too fantastical to pass up, and it fit with Dex’s underlying fear of his private life being publicly exposed.
It was in my head to have a spinoff featuring Violet, Fi’s hacker friend, threatening to destroy the site by releasing the client roster to the public. Because that really would be a meaty tale. And then the Ashley Madison hacker scandal ended up happening in real life about a month before I finished the book.
All of which is to say that THE GAME PLAN is my “ripped from the headlines” homage.
Hope you enjoyed!
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to the awesome people who gave me feedback, sent me NFL/football factoids, and basically held my hand throughout the writing process: Jen, Elyssa, Sarina, Tessa, Monica, Carolyn, and Jill. Thank you, most excellent beta readers, Katie and Sahara. Thank you, Nina, for your on point PR skills and advice.
Gray’s terrible joke comes to you via one drunken night with my sisters, Liz and Karina. I believe it was Karina’s joke. Thank you for that.
To my husband who held down the fort while I was writing, and to my kids who gave me encouragement along the way.
Thank you awesome readers and bloggers—without you this book would not exist.
And a special thanks to the members of The Locker Room, the best place to hang out and talk sports romance (heck, ALL romance) that I know. If you’d like to hang out with them, and interact with me on a daily basis, click HERE to join.
About the Author
Kristen Callihan is an author because there is nothing else she’d rather be. She is a RITA award winner, and winner of two RT Reviewer’s Choice awards. Her novels have garnered starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and the Library Journal, as well as making the USA Today bestseller list. Her debut book FIRELIGHT received RT Magazine’s Seal of Excellence, was named a best book of the year by Library Journal, best book of Spring 2012 by Publisher’s Weekly, and was named the best romance book of 2012 by ALA RUSA. You can sign up for Kristen’s new release e-mail HERE