Fumbled: The Playbook #2 (Playbook, The, Band 2) - Softcover

Martin, Alexa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451491971 ISBN 13: 9780451491978

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

One of NPR's Best Books of 2019

A second chance doesn't guarantee a touchdown in this new contemporary romance from the author of Intercepted.

Single-mother Poppy Patterson moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. After years of hard work, she's built a life she loves. It may include a job at a nightclub, weekend soccer games, and more stretch marks than she anticipated, but it's all hers, and nobody can take that away. Well, except for one person.

T.K. Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. His world is football, parties, and women. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he's moved on.  

When Poppy and TK cross paths in the most unlikely of places, emotions they've suppressed for years come rushing back. But with all the secrets they never told each other lying between them, they'll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a former NFL player who now coaches at the high school where they met, their four children, and a German Shepherd. When she's not telling her kids to put their shoes on...again, you can find her catching up with her latest book boyfriend or on Pinterest pinning meals she'll probably never make. Her first book, Intercepted, was inspired by the eight years she spent as an NFL wife.

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One

I'm on my knees.

In the back of a club, covered in a foreign liquid, and on my freaking knees. Plus, I'm pretty sure the coarse, dirty carpet beneath me might rub a hole through my lace stockings.

Some drunk asshole spilled whiskey all over my corset while trying to cop a feel. I'm pretty sure I've looked through hundreds of corsets and still can't find my size. Which, I guess, all things considered, is a good alternative for other reasons to be on my knees in a nightclub.

I never, not in a million years, thought this would be my life, but if life has taught me anything, it's to expect the unexpected.

And also, screw expectations. Expectations always leave you disappointed, broken, or-if you are really lucky, like me-all of the above.

"Hey, Poppy, Papi!" Sadie shimmies into the room, over the piles of mismatched thigh-high stockings and red-sequined corsets, waving a flat iron over her head. "Sadie's here to save the day."

I met Sadie on my first day here. I crossed the threshold into what I was sure was going to be dark, depressing, and coated with daddy issues, only to find my own little rainbow, dusting anyone around her with glitter. Literally. I love her to death, but if you come within three feet of Sadie, you can expect to find glitter on you for the next five months.

"You're a godsend. Phil looked like he was about to have a coronary when he saw me. I guess there's a big group coming tonight and my smelling like cheap booze and having half a head of frizzy hair was almost the end of the world." I grab another corset and check the tag: size zero . . . again. "Ugh! Why am I the only person here not a size zero or two? I'm going to crack a rib trying to close this."

"Because you like wine too much." Sadie doesn't look at me as she plugs the flat iron into the only empty outlet in the room.

"Whatever. Red wine is a health food. My heart is strong as hell, thank you very much." Resigning myself to the fact that I'll spend the rest of the night unable to breathe or bend properly, I start to peel off my ruined uniform, but for some reason, the clasps are stuck. "Ohmygod. Halp!"

Sadie rolls her eyes, taking her sweet time to come and help me. "You are doing the absolute most right now."

"Am not," I whisper yell at her. The upper clasps opened fine, so both of my hands are working to keep my girls covered. "Can you hurry before someone walks in and thinks I'm trying to get onstage tonight?"

"You suck in and squeeze the top as tight as you can. I'll try and rip the bottom ones open." She's biting her lip, and I know if she were to let go, she'd be laughing in my face. "Ready?"

I appreciate her restraint.

"Ready." I nod.

"Go!" She pulls as hard as she can. Which, unfortunately for me, is much stronger than I was bracing for and I go flying.

Face first.

With the reaction time of a sloth.

Of. Course.

I say nothing when I hit the ground. I just lie there, unmoving, taking inventory of my face. Running my tongue along my teeth, all still there. Feeling for the wetness of blood dripping from my nose, all dry. Everything is intact.

Well, everything except my right breast.

And my pride.

But I lost that years ago.

"Holy crap," I moan. "I never thought I'd ever in my life say this, but thank God for thigh-highs." A pile of the lacy little buggers saved my face!

And then I hear it.

Sadie's self-control has left the room.

"Why didn't I have my camera on?" she manages to get out through her peals of laughter. "You should have seen your face going down."

She does her best slo-mo replay for me, complete with openmouthed horror and wide-eyed fear.

"I kind of hate you right now." I fight my own smile. I'm secretly also bummed she didn't catch it on camera. I know it makes me seem like a nine-year-old, but watching people fall is a favorite pastime of mine . . . even when it's me. "You pushed me."

"That's what happens when you ask someone to undress you while wearing four-inch stilettos." She gestures to my weapon-adorned feet. "I accept none of the blame."

"You're a terrible friend. You could at least pretend to feel bad." I don't even try to stand up. I just lie on the floor and twist the clasps until they come undone . . . about four minutes too late. I'm half tempted to throw on my leggings and take my ass home.

Alas, the nearing empty gas tank in my car and electric bill that was fifty dollars more than normal pop into my head, reminding me I am a certified adult with certified adult problems. So my adult ass has to stay and serve adult drinks.

"Pretending is for porn stars, darling," Sadie says. "Now throw on a robe so I can fix your hair."

Ugh. My hair.

I don't hate much about my job.

But nearing the top of my hate list is burning my curly locks into submission. I've always loved my gravity-defying hair, but Phil-the club owner-has a strict "straight hair only" policy. I think it's bullshit and low-key racist, but I need a paycheck more than I need to stand on this Black Girl Magic mountain.

"How are the tips for you tonight?" I ask as Sadie yanks my head around, trying to get as close to my roots as possible without scorching my scalp.

"Not great." She avoids my eyes in the mirror. "But Phil put us on the VIP table tonight and they were walking in when I was heading up here, so things should get good."

"If it doesn't, let me know if you need one of my tables after they leave. I've worked overtime this week and my feet could use a slow night."

In reality, I could use every spare cent I can get.

But Sadie's been having a rough go as of late with her mom crashing at her place and giving her exactly zero extra dollars a month for rent and food. Plus, with prices skyrocketing in Denver, thanks to the thousands of marijuana enthusiasts moving in, she's struggling.

Something I understand all too well.

Supporting two people on this pay isn't what one would call a cake walk.

"Thank you," she says into my smoking tresses. "Maybe I could take one."

"No, thank you." I reach my arm beyond me, blindly searching for her hand to squeeze. "I have to spend the rest of the night in a uniform a size too small. I'm going to look like a stuffed sausage. You're saving me from extra humiliation."

"Oh, stop it." She finally looks at me, her eyes lit with humor. "The only thing it's going to do is make your waist look smaller and your already massive boobs look even bigger. You're going to rake it in tonight."

"I can always count on you to look on the bright side."

"That you can." She smirks at me and, as if by magic, conjures up a handful of glitter and throws it over my head.

I don't even attempt to brush it off me. This has happened to me enough to know glitter is like quicksand-the more you fight it, the more it sticks to you. Instead, I hang my head, resigned to the fact that I befriended a glitter-wielding psychopath.

Sparkly bitch.

If anyone tries to quote me, IÕll deny it with every last breath, but I adore my waitress costume-not uniform, this is straight dress-up.

Well, when it's not crushing my lungs.

When I'm not at the club, I'm at home or school pickup in leggings, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. I never, not in a million years, imagined myself working at a club, but I do take a secret pleasure in playing sex vixen. When I first started, I convinced myself it was an acting job. I have zero talent in the arts, but ever since I watched season one of American Idol, I've wanted to "gig." So that's what I told myself. Just going giggin'.

And it still works.

I'm one of the best waitresses here, and I consistently bring in the highest tips. Because when I walk in the door, I'm no longer...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0451491971
• ISBN 13: 9780451491978
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@phaidon.com; ; Zähringerstraße 24; Berlin; 10707; Deutschland