Love After The Whistle

Book One of The Game of Hearts

Adelina Kelley has never liked Deagan Jones.
He's arrogant, cocky, constantly teasing her, and has a reputation for treating relationships like games. As the school's star football player, Deagan is used to getting attention-and he's convinced Adelina will eventually be no different.

But Adelina isn't impressed.
She's fiery, stubborn, outspoken, and completely determined to keep her distance from him. She's also already in a committed relationship, making her the one girl Deagan knows he shouldn't pursue.
Then his best friends, Kalon and Royce, give him a challenge: make Adelina fall for him.
If he succeeds, they become his personal "lap dogs" for a month.

Deagan accepts, certain that winning will be easy.
It isn't.

Every interaction between them turns into an argument. Every challenge makes their rivalry worse. But the more time Deagan spends around Adelina, the more he begins to see the person behind her attitude-the girl who loves painting, hides her softer side, and cares more deeply than she lets anyone know.
What starts as a bet slowly becomes something real.

Deagan finds himself thinking about her when she's not around. He starts caring about what she thinks of him. And before he realizes it, the boy who thought love was nothing more than a game is falling for the one girl who never wanted to play.
For real.

But Adelina knows nothing about the bet.
When she eventually discovers the truth, every moment between them becomes a lie in her eyes.
The arguments.
The friendship.
The feelings.
Everything.

To Deagan, the bet may have been fake-but his feelings aren't.

Now he has to prove that somewhere between trying to win a game and getting closer to the girl who hated him, he stopped playing altogether.
Because winning Adelina's heart was never supposed to mean losing her trust.

And sometimes, the hardest part of falling in love is convincing the person you hurt that your love is real.