Vegas Aces: The Tight End

I don’t date football players. I’m not interested in the ones who are a decade older than me. I want nothing to do with the ones who play on the same team as my brothers, and I certainly avoid the ones who spend more time in strip clubs than kids’ clubs. So why do I suddenly find myself faking a relationship with Ben Olson, the bad boy tight end who fits every descriptor on my naughty list?

The pro football player I’m faking a relationship with has the perfect solution to my career woes. He’s encouraging me to lean into the pseudo-celebrity life I was born into instead of trying to outrun it, and for the first time in my life, someone sees me for me. I feel like he’s falling for me, too. And then my ex shows up.

Outside forces are working hard to tear us apart, but we’ve teamed up against them. It’s the internal struggles we’re battling that could spell the ultimate end. When Ben makes a public show to prove how committed we are, I’m left confused as I struggle to figure out whether his feelings for me are real or if they’re part of the act. As we spend time at his secluded estate in Montana, I start to question whether there’s really an expiration date stamped on our relationship or if we could actually find a way to make this work.

One of us will have to give up the future we’ve dreamed of if we’re going to make this work. It’s not going to be me. We can’t both have that same thought if we want to stay together when our contract ends. But the more I see him struggle against the things his mother does to him, the harder I fall. The more his ex tries to get in his way, the more I want to stand up for him. And the more adventures he takes me on through the peaceful dream of his estate in the wilderness, the more I can see myself staying by his side.

I knew playing with my feelings was a huge gamble with someone like him, but I did it anyway. Now I’ve learned the hard lesson that gambling—and life—in Vegas just aren’t for me. I have a lot of decisions I need to make on my own, so I took a job that will allow me to relocate, regroup, and make new friends while I try to figure out what comes next for me. One of those new friends is a hot former baseball player who is also my temporary new roommate. Even though I find myself attracted to him, I’m carrying too much weight from my past to move forward.