Playing for Keeps

Seth Tate has everything— talent, popularity, a killer arm, and a line of girls who'd do anything for a night in his bed. Being the star quarterback of Eagle River University means his life is simple: win games, have fun, avoid feelings. But his perfect world cracks the night he carries a very drunk girl home… and realizes she's someone he should have remembered. Kate Harrison has spent her entire life invisible—or worse, the target of boys like Seth Tate. The ones who mocked her, dismissed her, made her feel small. She escaped high school with scars no one sees and rebuilt herself in college: writer, top student, future journalist. Strong… or at least she tries to be. The last thing she wants is to interview the one guy who made her childhood hell. But fate—and her editor—have other plans. Their first interview is a disaster. Their second? Worse. And the more Kate pushes him away, the more Seth finds himself wanting her attention for reasons he can't explain. He's supposed to be confident. Untouchable. Unbothered. Yet one stubborn, sharp-tongued girl with a messy bun and a broken filter is getting under his skin in a way no one ever has. As the tension between them builds—on the field, in the newsroom, behind closed doors—Seth is forced to face the truth: football isn't the only game he's in danger of losing. And Kate? She's starting to see a version of Seth she never believed existed. A version only she gets to see. Playing for Keeps is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers college football romance filled with sharp banter, electric chemistry, unexpected vulnerability, and the kind of love that rewrites everything you thought you knew about yourself.