by Ann Jacobs
Forward Pass
Ann Jacobs
Book 2 in the Gridiron Lovers series.
Keith Connors, widowed All-Pro quarterback, has never been one for the groupies or casual sex after a big game, unlike some of his teammates. And the last thing he’s looking for is a woman to replace his dead wife. Until gentle Tina Black walks into his life and captivates his baby son’s heart.
Still feeling the pain and shame of an attack by her perverted, dead-beat stepfather, Tina is looking for a fresh start. When Keith offers her a job as a nanny for his boy, it’s a sanctuary, a place to heal that she can’t resist.
From a tremulous relationship founded first on friendship, Keith grows to love the innocent, softly sexy woman inside Tina who turns him on like no other, while Tina sees behind the handsome quarterback façade to the loving family man, and together they decide to take a second chance on life—and love.
An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
www.ellorascave.com
Forward Pass
ISBN 9781419921650
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Forward Pass Copyright © 2009 Ann Jacobs
Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication November 2009
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
Forward Pass
Ann Jacobs
Dedication
To Joey W. Hill, the best writer friend and critique partner on Earth, for her keen eye, her frequent nudges at me to let my story people’s emotions fly. And to Jaid Black, who in her wisdom got us together to critique each other nearly seven years ago. I hope I’ve helped Joey’s beautiful stories one tenth as much as she’s helped mine.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Cadillac: General Motors Corporation
Coke: The Coca-Cola Company
Escalade: General Motors Corporation
Lexus: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha TA Toyota Motor Corporation
Louis XIII Fine Champagne Cognac: E. Remy Martin & Co.
NFL, NFL Network: NFL Enterprises LLC
Photoshop: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Porsche: Dr. Ing. h. c. f. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft Corporation
Super Bowl: National Football League unincorporated association
Target: Target Brands, Inc.
The Weather Channel: The Weather Channel, Inc
TiVo: TiVo Brands LLC
Author’s Notes and Glossary
I’m a rabid football fan, or rather a rabid fan of several generations of quarterbacks I’ve watched play on TV and in person. This fandom caused me to come up with an idea for the Gridiron Lovers, a series of erotic romances about four star quarterbacks who just happened to have grown up in the same small west Texas town and who went on to fame and fortune as professionals. All of these guys and their teams are fictional, and any resemblance to an actual NFL player or team past or present is purely coincidental.
The four books’ titles apparently need some explanation for readers who haven’t been watching games every fall since…well, for quite a few years. Suffice it to say, I’ve watched every Super Bowl since number three, when Broadway Joe Namath came through on his guarantee of a win for the New York Jets. I was just a baby then (wink-wink).
So here we go. Mind you, these definitions may not all be technically correct, since they’re based on my personal observations and comments I’ve digested from the media personalities who call the games on TV every Sunday from August through December and early January. Take a minute and read these pages first, or as my Aussie editor says, you may become totally confused.
Naked Bootleg. This is a play where the quarterback takes the snap, fakes a handoff to a running back but keeps the ball. He runs the opposite direction from the runner without a lineman protecting him—this makes the bootleg “naked”—and either passes to a receiver downfield or runs downfield himself. I thought it was a great play for Bobby Anthony to make during his first NFL appearance, as well as a sexy-sounding title for the first Gridiron Lovers book.
Forward Pass. The quarterback drops back from the line of scrimmage and throws the ball forward to an eligible receiver downfield. Eligible receivers, I think, are the backs, tight ends and wide receivers. Keith Connors is a master of the forward pass on the field, but he’s pretty hot in the bedroom, as well.
Clutch, as in Hot in the Clutch. A player, usually a quarterback, who’s especially good at coming through with points when the team needs them most. Dave Delaney’s career is almost over, but he can still be counted on for a great play in the clutch, whether it’s on the field or in a woman’s bed.
Coach, as in Coach Me. The masterminds of the game, often former players great or average. Each team has several coaches, with the “head coach” in charge of it all. Colin Zanardi’s playing days are over, but he’s still in the game, not only with his team but also with the hottest of the local ladies.
Now for the glossary, which I’m putting in alphabetical order so you can refer to it as needed while you read:
Athletic waivers: A certain number of exceptions a college coach can use to recruit top athletes who don’t meet minimum academic standards for the institution, which are determined by a combination of high school grades and standardized test scores.
Audible: When the quarterback calls out a change of the play at the line of scrimmage.
Block: What linemen do to keep defensive players away from the quarterback, as in “throw a block” or “miss a block”.
Center: The player on the offensive line who snaps the ball to the quarterback when he’s “under center” or “in the shotgun”.
Clipboard: The object that all backup quarterbacks almost always have in their hands while standing on the sidelines; a backup quarterback’s assignment, as in “carry the clipboard”.
Depth chart: W chart that shows each player’s status at his position—starter, second string, third string, etc.
Double coverage: Two defensive players are covering (chasing) one potential receiver for the offense at the same time.
Field position: The spot on the hundred-yard field where the ball is spotted—the closer to the defense’s goal, the better the field position is for the offense.
First down: When the offense starts a series or moves ten yards down the field toward the opponent’s goal—can be a longer or shorter distance if penalties are involved—and is then given four more tries to make another ten yards or a touchdown, or kick the ball away.
Fumble: When the
football gets loose from whatever player had it in his hands and is fair game for any player, either offensive or defensive, to pick up and claim—called a fumble recovery.
Groupie: A woman who’s obsessed with professional athletes and wants any athlete, but preferably a star, for a day or night’s fun and games.
Handoff: When the quarterback takes the snap from the center and immediately hands it to a running back.
Huddle: A gathering of the entire offense around the quarterback, who gives them the play the coach has sent from the sideline or via a speaker in the quarterback’s helmet.
Interception: When an opposing player catches a pass, thereby causing the defense to get the ball.
Linebackers: Defensive players who often break through the offensive line and go after the quarterback (there are three of them in some defenses, four in others); they also break up pass plays down field by stopping the receivers who are trying to catch passes and/or get additional yards after catching the ball.
Line of scrimmage: The point on the football field where the ball is placed.
Nose tackle: A defensive player who lines up in front of the center, usually a huge beast of a man who opens up holes in the offense so other defensive players can get to the quarterback (Note: this assumes the defense is what’s called a three-four where the nose tackle and two defensive ends line up in front, with four linebackers behind them—the setup is different, although I can’t explain how, if the defense is a so-called four-three with two tackles and two defensive ends in front and three linebackers behind them).
Penalty: A misdeed on the part of an offensive or defensive player that causes the team to be penalized from five to fifteen yards, and sometimes—in the case of a penalty on the defense—to create an automatic first down for the offense. Some of the reasons penalties are imposed are for holding, roughing the passer, unnecessary roughness, illegal motion before the ball is snapped, extra man on the field, or illegal formation.
Pick-six: An interception that the defensive player runs back for a touchdown.
Punt: Kick on fourth down, so the opposing team will get the ball as far as possible downfield; punter: the player who kicks punts.
Receiver, or wide receiver: An offensive player whose main function is to catch passes from the quarterback.
Running back: Offensive player who takes handoffs from quarterback and runs the ball, or who catches short passes “out of the backfield” and then runs for yardage.
Sack: When a defensive player gets to the quarterback before he passes the ball, and throws him to the ground.
Scout team: A team of non-starting players who study and then try to duplicate the plays of an opposing team while the first team practices against them during the week before the actual game (the backup quarterback usually runs the scout team, although sometimes that job goes to the third string guy).
Shotgun: A formation where the quarterback stands a good distance back from the center to take the snap.
Snap: The movement of the ball from the center to the quarterback.
Taking a knee: When the quarterback takes the snap and goes down on one knee instead of initiating a play as the time is winding down to zero at halftime or at the end of a game.
Three-and-out: An expression that describes an offensive series where the offense goes three snaps without getting a first down.
Tight end: Offensive players who generally line up at the ends of the offensive line (if there are two of them in for the play) and who block as well as catch passes.
Turnover: The offense gives the ball to the other team because of a fumble or interception rather than after three-and-out or a touchdown.
I hope you all enjoy this series as much as I’ve loved putting it together.
Ann Jacobs
www.annjacobs.net
Prologue
For the first time since Jackie died nearly eight months ago, Keith Connors felt a heavy weight of responsibility start to lift off his shoulders. Finally, after six months of looking, he’d found a nanny he could trust to take care of Jack. And from his own postage stamp-sized hometown, no less. Tina Black had the confidence of Keith’s older sister as well as recommendations from rookie Maulers quarterback Bobby Anthony and Bobby’s mother, who’d known Tina well while she’d been growing up in a town too small for anyone to have any serious secrets.
Now Keith could get back to the field and concentrate on playing football. Much more time away and he’d have lost his starting slot to Bobby. He knew now he’d been a fool to suggest that the Maulers draft the talented rookie from Hedgecock County High this spring, but in those first dark days after Jackie’s death he hadn’t known if he could, or even if he wanted to go on playing. Plus, Bobby was a good guy who’d deserved the shot and Keith wished him well in his NFL career.
On the way inside the house Jackie had chosen soon after they moved to Memphis, he paused in the foyer and looked at her portrait—one her parents had commissioned and given them when they’d moved in more than nine years ago. The portrait was beautiful, but it wasn’t Jackie as he wanted to remember her. It looked too much like the Jackie she’d become before she died—brittle, cold and so determined to have her way that she’d ended up dying, leaving him lost without her.
Keith turned away from the lifeless painting. He’d spent plenty of time grieving, wondering how he’d ever go on living and bring up the little boy his wife had wanted so desperately. Now he wouldn’t have to face the weekly calls from her mother, offering to take Jack and raise him so he could keep on “playing children’s games” as she generally referred to the career that had made him a multimillionaire before his twenty-second birthday. And he wouldn’t have to listen to his own mom’s worried voice almost every day, asking if he was ever going to find the right nanny to take care of her grandson.
Glancing to the right, at the formal dining room he hadn’t been in since the day of Jackie’s funeral, he continued through the entryway past a curving staircase to the game room and bar where he spent most of his time at home. As he stared out the window and watched a brisk October wind making ripples along the usually calm shoreline of a man-made lake, he tried to picture the young woman who’d be arriving anytime now to take care of Jack.
Funny, though she’d come with Bobby to meet him and his son just two days ago and he’d seen her again this morning at the team’s training facility, he was having a hard time remembering what she looked like. The first time, he’d been most captivated by how Jack had responded to her. He remembered her on her knees in the nursery, lifting his laughing baby in the air while Jack latched onto her hair with both his tiny fists. She’d been young, he remembered that. Just twenty-two, and unlike most women he encountered, she seemed shy around him. That was okay, because she exuded a strong sense of self-confidence when she handled his son. Jack obviously had loved her at first sight. When Bobby’s fiancée had brought her over to meet him and Bobby after practice, his impression had been that looks-wise, Tina didn’t hold a candle to Marly.
He’d scoured his memory, but the only impression of Tina from Hedgecock, Texas, where they both grew up, had been a young shadow of a girl hanging to the back of the group of boys who used to like pestering him to throw a football with them. His sister Diane had coolly reminded him that she’d been best friends with Tina’s mom and that Keith had also run into Tina when he occasionally came to her house to get a ride home from Diane after practice.
Yeah, Diane was still pissed about how he’d turned his back on where he grew up. He’d shoved a lot of childhood memories of Hedgecock deep in the back of his mind. Though he remembered the Black family’s modest frame house a stone’s throw from the school, and he could still picture a tire swing in the backyard and almost taste the homemade cookies he’d eaten in Tina’s mother’s kitchen.
Hedgecock hadn’t been so bad. He’d just wanted to get the hell away from there so much, away from the empty, dead-end lives so many of the men working the rigs had. He hadn’t wanted t
hat to be his future.
Tina was only twenty-two now, but she apparently had taken care of her mother until her death a few months ago. Despite her problems with him, Diane spoke highly of Tina’s sense of responsibility, which gave Keith a degree of comfort.
It helped, too, that Bobby recommended her. Some problem had come up back home, bringing Tina to Memphis, but Bobby had assured him it wasn’t anything that would interfere with her being a nanny. The two had been close friends since they were kids, and Keith imagined they’d been lovers too. If so, that was in the past. Keith couldn’t imagine Bobby’s fiancée putting up with him messing around now, just weeks before their wedding. Marly didn’t strike him as a woman willing to share her man. Tina would have had a hard time competing for Bobby’s attention with the incredibly sexy Marly, anyhow. And that was fine with Keith.
In the past few months he’d interviewed at least a hundred women, most of whom seemed more interested in sleeping with him than taking care of Jack. Tina’s appearance hadn’t stuck in his mind, but her attitude impressed him. She didn’t seem like the type to chase him around the house, trying to seduce him. If anything, he’d sensed a “don’t touch” attitude about her that he’d have wondered more about if only he weren’t so relieved to be getting his life back in order.
Picking up the phone, he speed-dialed his mom to let her know Tina had agreed to be Jack’s nanny and that she’d be moving in later today. Afterward he hesitated then called Jackie’s parents too, bracing himself as he dialed the number for the inevitable tears and thinly veiled accusations that accompanied every contact he’d had with them since Jackie’s death. Nothing he could say or do would bring her back or make her parents believe she hadn’t died entirely because he was a selfish bastard.