The Trade: A second chance, fake relationship sports romance by Kata Čuić

Author:Kata Čuić [Čuić, Kata]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-17T23:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

Merrick

For all the guys who don’t take family summer vacations, the month between mini and full training camps have a host of team activities. Today is a family fun day at the stadium. The press is here in droves. So are the producers for the reality show, along with actual cameras this time. The players are put on display like fucking show ponies to build excitement for a new season. As a reward for prancing, the guys who break their bodies during the day are given the opportunity to kiss their wives and kids and show off their happy families to the cameras.

Nothing sells football like family. It’s a uniquely American sport after all, and Americans are rabid for good, old-fashioned family fun time.

I’m actually kind of surprised that this TV series hasn’t already been done.

The Fossoways are putting on a hell of a good show. Maybe that’s just because they have so many damn kids who are freakishly photogenic. Not so surprising really. They have good genes. Their dad is an underwear model, and their mom isn’t exactly hard on the eyes.

If they inherited half of their parents’ brains, they’re going to be unstoppable as adults. No one will be able to compete with them.

Kyle and I stand shoulder to shoulder with matching postures of wide stances and crossed arms. He looks as annoyed as I feel by the whole display.

Maybe because we’re acutely aware that we’re auditioning for entirely different positions than we trained for.

“Where’s Brooke?” I ask him as we watch the journalists praise one of the little Fossoways for her uncoordinated cartwheels on the turf.

“Dan went and got himself arrested last night,” Kyle mutters. “After she posted his bail, we grounded his ass for the rest of his life. She’s currently acting as a jail warden.”

I slowly swivel my head to blink at him. “Say what, now?”

He shakes his head. “Yeah, apparently his new DND group was a front for a drug ring. He claims he had no idea, but I’m not buying it. Fucking geeks. They fly under the radar for the same shit jocks get roasted for on a daily basis.”

Suddenly, my problems don’t seem so big. Jazz might have been onto something when she was so willing to throw herself under the bus to make Kyle and Brooke’s lives a little easier.

“You really think Dan’s a drug dealer?”

After observing their non-traditional family while I crashed with them for a month, it was easy to see that Dan has serious game—geek or not. He goes through women like water. Not that I’m endorsing teenage sex, but shit. It’s just a fact of life that no one wants to talk about.

A jock could never get away with flaunting something like that. Kyle’s right—we’re labeled as sexual predators just because we wear helmets sometimes. What most people don’t realize is that we involve emotions way more than the average guy. Our jobs are built on a foundation of emotions. We wouldn’t be able to slowly destroy our bodies for a game if we didn’t love it with literally everything we have to give.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.