Touchdowns and Tenderness

Luca "The Tank" Davis is a star player on the Bayview University football team, a powerful force on the field, and a guy who seems to have it all. He's got the looks, the fame, the skill, and a reputation that precedes him. Off the field, he's known for his cold, distant demeanor, and it's not hard to see why he's learned the hard way that people only want to be around him for what he can do for them. He trusts no one.

But everything starts to change when he meets Isla Matthews. Isla is a quiet, invisible figure on campus who's hiding from her past. She's the girl who walks around in oversized sweaters, sits alone in the back of every lecture, and is determined to stay unnoticed. She's carrying emotional scars, and she doesn't want anyone to know.

She's also never cared about football-until one day, she accidentally bumps into Luca in a library study room. They don't talk much at first, but something about Isla's sadness and Luca's bitterness intrigues the other. He can see there's more to her than she lets on. She's not chasing his fame or fortune, and that's different from every other person in his life.

As their paths cross more and more-during long study sessions, group projects, and unexpected moments-they find that their pain and struggles mirror each other in unexpected ways. But while Luca's life is splashed all over social media and the front page of the campus paper, Isla remains a shadow, a quiet girl with a broken heart.

The story is about them finding each other when everything around them is falling apart. It's a romance built on trust, healing, and the realization that the loudest people don't always have the deepest pain, and the quietest people aren't always the weakest.