Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Sports

Katie Weber left her heart behind in Portland when she decided to follow her dreams in Hollywood. Now she's back to sing the national anthem for the Portland Storm for their annual Hockey Fights Cancer night. One look at the team's bench while she's singing is all it takes to know that Jamie Babcock is still hurting just as much as she is. She's done the Hollywood thing, though, and she's over it. She knows what she wants, and she wants Jamie, but she might have already done too much damage.

Rocky N'Guwe thought tennis would be the hardest thing he'd have to learn at Palm Gables Tennis Academy. But the young jackal finds himself navigating a new culture as well as his own sexuality and the volatile relationships of any high school, all while keeping himself focused on the professional career that will allow him to rescue his sister from an undesirable marriage back home. And looming in his future is Palm Gables alum and rising tennis star Braden Longacre, an abrasive cross fox whose path keeps crossing Rocky's no matter how much the jackal tries to avoid him....

When I share one night with Luca, the captain of St. Dominic’s hockey team, The Cougars, and an alpha of a pride that has feuded with mine for generations, I think that’s all it is: One night. Luca is kind, strong, and beautiful. He’s also way too good for me. One night. That’s it. But then I get pregnant.

Brayden: I'm a goddamn prodigy. I threw my first curveball the day I was born. The whole town's waiting on me. To live up to my father's famous name. To reach for the stars. All I want to reach for is her. But Ashley's the sweet addiction I can't afford. She's my best friend's sister. For years, I've protected her from guys who want one thing. What happens now that I've turned into one of them? My game plan sounds simple: Pitch my way into the Major League draft and stay out of Ashley Foster's pants. The first part may be statistically difficult. The second feels damn near impossible.

A photoshoot for the Handsome modeling agency takes me back to my Wyoming hometown. While I’m delivering cookies to Gran who feels unwell, I run into Wolf, the ranch owner who hates my family, and three sworn enemies from my past: Uptight police officer Lincoln with whom I locked lips before, Wyatt, a former horse-riding competitor with a carved body and intense looks, And Ryder, the tanned and well-built carpenter, who still blames me for a tragic event in the past. I’m supposed to stay away from them. But their chiseled bodies make it impossible to control all my dirty thoughts.

The road to the Olympics is a long path. The challenges are varied. It takes money. It takes effort. Some luck. More than anything else, it takes belief. In yourself and those you care about. Which meant...he'd simply have to be ready for anything. Because the only absolute certainty was that he can't give up. He owed it to them. And to himself.

Jimmy Lee Hickam grew up along Red Dog Road, a dead-end strip of gravel and mud buried deep in the bowels of Appalachian Ohio. It is the poorest road, in the poorest county, in the poorest region of the state. To make things worse, the name Hickam is synonymous with trouble. Jimmy Lee hails from a heathen mix of thieves, moonshiners, drunkards, and general anti-socials that for decades have clung to both the hardscrabble hills and the iron bars of every jail cell in the region. This life, Jimmy Lee believes, is his destiny, someday working with his drunkard father at the sawmill, or sitting next to his arsonist brother in the penitentiary.

There is something about the boy. When he is angry, clouds darken. When he cries, rivers burst their banks. And when he touches a basketball, deities want courtside seats. Half Nigerian mortal, half Grecian god: Demi is the Half-God of Rainfall. His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows that gods are just like men: the same fragile egos, the same subsequent fury, the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals. The gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and their prayers to Demi.

Casey Halbach's life was perfectly on track. She had it all: good friends, a loving boyfriend, a decent job with her very own cubicle. Then, she met Sky. Riding instructor, barn manager, and whirlwind of energy, Sky effortlessly launches Casey back into the saddle. Friends are confused, the boyfriend is concerned, and Casey is conflicted - but when she decides to take the plunge and buy a horse of her own, she realizes that she was just dabbling in the shallow end before. Now, Casey's pretty sure she's in over her head, but the crazy thing is: She thinks she likes it this way.

He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, he’s entitled to his big ego. He an international footballer and a multimillionaire. Carlos Garcia’s a huge success on and off the pitch, and he’s got it all. Joining a new football club, he wants his teammates to like him, especially the one man who sets his pulse racing. As the quietest guy on the football team, Harry Carter avoids attention. He’s so scared of people finding out he’s gay that he’s made sure there are just clothes in his closet.

Sassy mouthed and impervious to Lance's charm and football-god status, Abby knew their relationship was doomed before it even began. He would leave in August, and she would be left behind. Just like all the other men in her life. His honesty and caring wins her over, and she decides to take a chance on a limited-time fling. But with summer drawing to its inevitable close, will they be able to maintain their emotional distance? Or will they both be heartbroken in the end?

Gabriel "Gabe" Lewis retired from the NFL and returned home to Cherry Springs. He combined his passion for football with camping and is now the owner of a football camp for teens. His summers are dedicated to spending time with family and teaching his campers about the sport he loves. Zoey Zahn is a quirky, introverted writer and self-proclaimed geek. When she's asked if she'll accompany her nephew, Christopher, to camp, Zoey agrees, envisioning quiet evenings of writing in the great outdoors.

New York Times best-selling author Tatum Longley is being forced out of her comfort zone. Her publisher needs her to change from hard-hitting nonfiction to romance. But first, she must find a muse. Angelo has no desire to form relationships, when a very persistent Tatum makes him an offer that nearly knocks this six-foot-five, long-haired, tattooed, dangerous-looking man on his ass. Will he be able to resist the temptation? Or will he allow her to use him?

"He shoots and he scores! Lightning Logan strikes again." That was me, Lightning Logan Jackson, because I was as fast as lightning on the ice. Playing for the NHL had been my dream since I was six years old, when my dad took me to my first hockey game. Hockey was my life. It consumed me. It was the one thing in life that I could commit to. Relationships were a no. Sex with beautiful women and no strings attached was a yes. I was a bachelor - happy and living the dream. Then the accident happened, and the doctors told me I'd never play hockey again.

I'm about to take on two of the most important fights of my life. My girl and the belt. I know that I can handle it, that I'll never stop fighting. But what do you do when your life, your love is threatened and you can't take the hits - she has to? You shut your eyes and f--king pray like hell that she's strong enough, fierce enough to come out on top.

Jason McCaw is a young adult about to celebrate his 19th birthday. The past 19 years of his life have been mundane and, for the most part, lonely. After his stepfather insists that he joins the basketball team to make friends, Jason is shocked and surprised when he meets the most popular boy in school, Riley Peterson. After a standoff with longtime bully, Riley steps up to the plate to defend Jason, and since his heroic attempt, Jason has failed to think of anything but Riley.

She grew up in a world filled with poverty and hatred from the person who gave birth to her and had decided she would finally make her ideas a reality. After moving away to college as a junior she ran into the University of Maryland's walking one-night stand. Literally.

Prostitution has been legal in Rhode Island for more than a decade; Liam Mulligan, an old-school investigative reporter at dying Providence newspaper, suspects the governor has been taking payoffs to keep it that way. But this isn’t the only story making headlines… a child’s severed arm is discovered in a pile of garbage at a pig farm. Then the body of an internet pornographer is found sprawled on the rocks at the base of Newport’s famous Cliff Walk.

I was a forever-bachelor kind of guy. I never planned on settling down. I never wanted a family of my own. Until a phone call came, the one woman I'd secretly loved my entire life needed my help.

Fighting against our relationship turns into keeping it a secret… most importantly from her father. At first, it's fun sneaking around, but then it feels like every time we're close to coming clean, something happens to stop us. Then, life takes another detour as the reminder that life is short plows into me. It's moments like these that make me think long and hard about the future. For the first time, the twelve years between us start to have some meaning as I wonder whether I'm robbing her of the future she deserves.