"A year ago, the untouchable star quarterback looked his head coach in the eye and said, ""Football can wait. My family can't."" Everyone assumed his career was over after the knee injury. Only I know what happened next. Over the past year, he quietly married me, held my hair back when morning sickness left me miserable, and trained in private while sharpening his game to a level he had never reached before. Tonight, I return to campus to apply for an ordinary position in the athletic department and surprise my best friend. Instead, I overhear her putting me on trial in front of a room full of people. According to her, I trapped him with a pregnancy, ruined his future, and turned him into a shell of the athlete he used to be. I simply smile. That shell of a man will be stepping onto the stage at the NFL Draft next month. And my best friend is about to find out exactly who she's been talking about."

"When the star quarterback at St. Jude's crossed the line from persistent to full-on stalker and cornered me at my locker, my panicking brain made the only move it could think of. I grabbed the nearest guy in a tie and announced to the entire hallway that he was my boyfriend. Unfortunately, the guy I picked wasn't just any student. He wore silver-rimmed glasses, had three debate championships to his name, and was the kind of academic golden boy whose name girls whispered like a prayer before finals. He could have pushed me away and exposed the lie in seconds. He didn't. Instead, he slipped off his glasses, tucked them into his pocket, looked me straight in the eye, and calmly told me he was taking this seriously. The lie was only supposed to last thirty seconds. But he had plans of his own. And I was about to discover that the boy behind the glasses had never been a nerd in the first place."