Intentional Grounding

By L.J. Fleming

Sometimes the last five yards are the hardest.

Quinn Maxwell is the starting center of the San Diego Kings professional football team, and his life seems to be falling into place. One day, the only person he tried to forget from his college football career, Rory Sinclair, walks back into his life and things are never the same.

With Rory as the new owner of the Kings, Quinn must choose between the game he loves and the man he loves. Things take an unexpected turn when an injury puts Quinn’s life in jeopardy and his career on the rocks.

When Rory makes a tough decision, will Quinn ever be the same?

Reader Advisory: Hot and sweaty man-on-man action.

PUBLISHER NOTE: M/M Romance, Gay Romance, Football Heroes, Suspense. 17,500 words. All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luminosity Publishing LLP
• Release date: Apr 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224037056

L.J. Fleming

Calling Indiana home, LJ is a busy mother of three and wife to the love of her life, who she met on a blind date, its own romantic tale. When not busy cheering at football games, attending band concerts or playing with her daughter, LJ finds time to enjoy comic books, reading, video games and snuggling her two cats, Zeus and Banjo.From the time she was a child, LJ has written about the world around her. From the first romance she wrote, she was hooked and writing has been an important part of her life ever since.

Book preview

INTENTIONAL GROUNDING

Gridiron Gossip 1

L.J. FLEMING

Sometimes the last five yards are the hardest.

Quinn Maxwell is the starting center of the San Diego Kings professional football team, and his life seems to be falling into place. One day, the only person he tried to forget from his college football career, Rory Sinclair, walks back into his life and things are never the same.

With Rory as the new owner of the Kings, Quinn must choose between the game he loves and the man he loves. Things take an unexpected turn when an injury puts Quinn’s life in jeopardy and his career on the rocks.

When Rory makes a tough decision, will Quinn ever be the same?

Reader Advisory: Hot and sweaty man-on-man action.

PUBLISHER NOTE:  M/M Romance, Gay Romance, Football Heroes, Suspense. 17,500 words. All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

INTENTIONAL GROUNDING

Gridiron Gossip 1

L.J. FLEMING

LUMINOSITY PUBLISHING LLP

INTENTIONAL GROUNDING

Gridiron Gossip 1

Copyright © APRIL 2024 L.J. FLEMING

Cover Art by Poppy Designs

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this literary work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

The author acknowledges the trademark status and the following trademark owners mentioned in this work of fiction:

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CHAPTER 1

The warm water felt good sliding over Quinn Maxwell’s parched skin. The day was long and the physical exertion harder than it had been earlier in the week. Looking down at his biceps, he could see the large, round bruises beginning to form where hands had gripped hard, pushing him away during the lineman drills during the day.

Quinn lathered up his body and washed the bruised areas as gingerly as he could. The dirt and grime of the field washed down the drain. Here, he could leave all the plays from the day behind. After the mess he made today, Quinn needed to forget. Performance was everything, and today had not been good.

Maxwell, you coming? one of his teammates called into the shower room, and it reverberated off the tiled walls.

Tell Pudge I’m almost done, Quinn called back as he rinsed the soap from his skin and began scrubbing his sweat-soaked locks. He needed to get the smell of that rancid helmet out of his hair, or he would never be able to sleep.

He didn’t want to get out of the shower, it felt too good, but Pudge wanted to get home and go to the library. That kid was a bookworm, but he was a great roommate, and Quinn couldn’t really complain because he always had someone to help with his homework. English papers were easier to write when you were on Pudge’s good side.

Quinn snapped off the water and took his towel from the small hook outside the stall. This was his lucky towel, printed with yard lines and hash marks against a dark green background. Yes, it was probably too childish for a man his age, but sentiment prevented him from parting with it.

It was the towel his mom bought him his senior year in high school as a present. The first year the Golee County Sharks won a state title. The first year that Quinn knew football was the most important thing in his life and he wanted to pursue it until he couldn’t anymore.

His mom never got to see him lift the trophy over his head at the championship. She died in a car accident when his father was drunk and plowed into a tree. Neither of them were there when he signed his letter to attend Southern State.

This towel was all he had left of his mother. Every time he touched it, he remembered her smile as he put on his helmet all those years ago in peewee football. She was his biggest fan, and he liked to think she was up in heaven cheering for him.

C’mon, Maxie, I don’t have all night, Pudge whined from the locker room just a little too loudly so that Quinn could hear it through the open door.

God, Pudge! Quinn yelled back, faking exasperation. Quinn wondered what book Pudge was dying to dive into this evening.

They were family. The Cardinals linemen would be the only family he would ever need, and he couldn’t have picked a better group.

Stepping into the main locker area, Quinn wrapped his towel tightly around his waist. These miscreants would pull all kinds of tricks if you stepped out there naked. You didn’t dare give anyone a chance to pull some shenanigans on you coming from the shower.

Pudge lay across one of the benches, feigning distress, complete with his arm thrown over his eyes as though he’d fainted. Quinn shoved him as he went by on the way to his assigned locker near the back of the bay.

Hey, Pudge yelled.

Quinn laughed but kept walking. He