In the End Zone: A Sports Romance (13 page)

"I will go with you
anywhere."

Author’s Notes

God, that was a good book, right? Well, I hope it was as good
for you as it was for me.

Because it’s based on a past love of mine.

When I set out to write this story, I knew that I wanted to
hit on the sports angle. I wanted to write a story about a gorgeous football
player and the quiet, shy girl that fell in love with him.

Because not so long ago, I was a girl who fell in love with a
handsome football player. Granted, I was a young thing, and he was completely
out of my reach and nothing ever happened. So when I wrote the story of Brent
and Morgan, it was a complete fantasy for me. I got to play out the romance
that I always envisioned for myself.

I really loved writing Dryer, Morgan’s boss, as well. I
thought that Morgan needed a father-like figure in her life to help guide her
through her relationship with Brent, and Dryer fit that mold perfectly, even if
he did come across as slightly sexist sometimes.

In the end, I had the best time writing “In the End Zone.” I
fell in love with Brent Larson right alongside Morgan, and I had a little tear
in my eye when she said yes to his proposal.

Did you enjoy the book? Make sure to leave a review on Amazon
or
GoodReads
(or both!) and let me know what you
think!

Until next time, readers!

-Nacole Mills

The morning sunlight was blinding as it poured in from the
bedroom window and the woman raised her hand to shield her eyes. The darkness
that she has been lost in for so long had faded from her, and when her eyes
adjusted to the light of the room, she found herself confused and scared.

"Where am I?" the woman spoke for the first time in
days and her voice was thick and cracking. Her vocal chords ached from not
being used and her throat seemed to tighten.

Movement from the other side of the bed caught her eye, and
she looked over to see a man looking back at her. She gasped and sat up
quickly. "Who are you?" she screeched.

The man put his hands up to calm her, but the woman was so
scared and confused. "Please, don’t freak out," the man said. His
voice was soothing and pleasant, and sounded familiar, as though it had been
guiding her through the darkness. "You have been unconscious for a few
days now. You need to take it easy."

Her wide, violet-colored eyes just kept staring. "Who
are you?"

"I am Andrew Louis." The man stood and moved away
from the bed, meaning to calm her. "I found you a few days ago in the
woods. You were knocked out from running from a mountain lion. I brought you
back here."

The woman looked around, panicked. "Why was I in the
woods?" she asked.

The man, Andrew, shrugged. "I am not sure," he
said, "All I know is that I heard a scream and I ran toward it. You were
laying on the ground and the mountain lion was bearing down on you."

Those violet eyes looked around frantically. Nothing seemed
familiar here. The room, the man, even the bedding was foreign. He must be
telling the truth, right?

But then again, the woman looked down at her hands and she
saw bracelets that she did not recognize. She saw a ring on her left hand that
glittered in the light, but she could not remember where it came from. Her
clothes, torn and dirty, were strange. The woman tried to remember something,
anything from before the darkness came over her, but no memories would come.

There was nothing.

The woman looked up at Andrew and she felt hot, frightened
tears well up in her eyes. "Can... Can you tell me..." She bit back a
sob. "Who am I?"

Andrew's dark brown eyes widened at her words. "You don’t
know who you are?" His voice did nothing to disguise the disappointment
that he seemed to feel.

"No..."She replied in a whisper as she lowered her
eyes from him.

Andrew sank onto the bed and he ran his hands over his long
beard. The woman watched him as she blinked her tears away. If she had not been
so frightened and scared, she would have been staring at his beautiful face and
those deep brown eyes. He really was a handsome guy. Her eyes wandered over his
body, across his tanned skin that encased long, lean muscles. The woman's
stared landed on a beautiful lotus tattoo on his lower arm, and she could not
quit staring.

"You really don’t know who you are?" Andrew asked.

The woman shook her head. "I can’t remember
anything," she admitted, "I just woke up. It's like there was nothing
before this. I know that there was darkness, and your voice sounds familiar.
Were you talking to me?"

Andrew looked away from her. "Probably. I don’t
know..." He ran his hand over his long, wild brown hair that seemed to
stick out wildly all over his head. "Well, we have got to call you
something," he said, "Do you favor a name?"

But the woman just shrugged. "I don’t know."

"Well," Andrew looked deep into the woman's eyes,
"Maybe we could call you Lisa?"

The woman's nose wrinkled. "I don’t think I like
that."

"What about Christie?"

"No, that's not right..."

"Vanessa? Penny? Lucy?"

The woman sighed. Her eyes wandered out the window and her
gaze landed on a beautiful, thick patch of violets that grew in the clearing
just outside of the cabin. "Oh my, she said. She stood and moved to the
window to get a better look at the beautiful purple and yellow flowers.
"Those are amazing."

Andrew moved to her side. "
Ahh
,
yeah, that's my violet patch. I moved the plants
there
last year. They are my favorite flower." The pair stood for a moment in
silence, then Andrew said, "You know, your eyes are the same shade of
violet as those flowers."

"Really? Violet..." The woman mulled over the word,
and something about it just seemed... right. "Violet... Hey!" She
turned to Andrew and smiled. "Why don’t you call me Violet?"

"Violet, huh?" Andrew smiled behind his thick,
honey-colored beard. "I like that."

The woman sat back down on the bed, for her legs had grown
weak from standing. "Violet," she said, "My name is
Violet."

It took a while for Violet to gain her strength back. Every
day seemed to be one challenge after another for her. On her first day awake,
Andrew forced her to stay in bed as he brought her broth and little bits of
bread. Violet grew frustrated with being forced to stay prostrate, but every
time she attempted to get up, she would fall and concede.

But the second day, she was able to move to the living room
just only a little help. But the third day, she had ventured outside to the
spring to get herself some water. And by day four, she was insisting that she
was back to her prior self.

"I really want you to take it easy, Violet," Andrew
said to her as she rose on the fifth morning, "I don’t want you to hurt
yourself. You may still be weak."

But Violet only rolled her eyes. "You don’t need to
treat me like a baby, Andrew. I feel fine."

Andrew sighed at her. "Alright, if you insist."
There was a looming question between them that Andrew did not want to ask, but
he knew that he could not be selfish and keep Violet all to himself. "Do
you want me to take you into the town nearby and see if anyone knows anything
about who you are? There may be people looking for you."

Violet had not considered that and she mulled the idea over
in her mind. Should she try and find out who she was? What if she did have a
family that was looking for her? But then again, she liked Andrew. He was sweet
and kind and he took such good care of her. They had become a really good team
in the few days that she had been up and on her feet. She had learned how to
cook on his strange wood burning stove and she had delved right into his
collection of books that he kept above his desk.

The pair had also began talking for hours on end almost every
day. Andrew talked of lots of things and Violet was enthralled. He talked about
his life before the woods and what drove him to leave society behind. Once or
twice, he mentioned a book that he wanted to write, but Violet never pressed
him about it.

The more that Violet thought about it, the more she did not
want to leave. She liked it there with Andrew, safely tucked away in the
forest. But, did he want her to leave? "Do you think I should?" she
asked, "I mean, do you want me to go?"

"Oh, no!" Andrew was quick with his reply, "I don’t
want you to go. But, at the same time, if you want to, you don’t need to feel
like you are forced to stay."

"I... I want to stay, for now," Violet said,
"I like it here, and I like you. I like your company." She looked
over at Andrew and she found that he had been watching her closely. "I...
I am drawn to you, like a bee to a flower, or a moth to a flame. I am not ready
to leave yet.'

More Works from Nacole Mills:

But I Love You More

Love was never supposed to be this complicated...

May's summer before
college was supposed to be a boring one. But when she is romanced by the
handsome, rugged farm hand working for her grandparents, she thinks that she
tastes love for the first time...

But then her best
friend comes to town, and suddenly,
May
has a choice
to make:

The bad boy with
the rough reputation? Or, her best friend?

Who loves her more?

Ignited

When love heats up…

Everything goes
wrong when single mom Kate Dubois meets billionaire Byron Romero. The hottest
eligible bachelor in town ends up wearing a chocolate shake and Kate is
humiliated. But as time goes on, love begins to burn between them.

But Byron’s ex,
Corinne King, is not ready to let go of her meal ticket so easy.

And no one is safe.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The story of Nacole Mills begins
in the mid-eighties when she was born to a pair of classic rock enthusiasts and
raised with a blonde-haired sibling and a three legged dog. Her written work
was first published at the age of 16 and she has published both poetry and
prose work.

Her love of romances stems from
Jack and Rose, to
Elphaba
and
Fiyero
,
to
Arthas
and
Jaina
.

She lives a quiet life in Southern
Appalachian Mountains with her incredible partner in crime and their two rowdy,
rambunctious clones.

Find Nacole online on
her website
, or
maybe
on Facebook
!