Personal Foul

PERSONAL FOUL MAGGIE RAWDON Copyright © 2023 by Maggie Rawdon Editing by Kat Wyeth – Editor (Kat’s Literary Services) Proofreading by Deborah Richmond (Kat's Literary Services) Cover Photo: Michelle Lancaster - www.michellelancaster.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or events are purely a work of imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, actual events, or places is purely coincidental. PERSONAL FOUL I’m her dirty little secret, the one she loves to hate. She knows just what to say to cut deep, and I know how to press every single button she has. We hate each other, until one night after I lose the biggest football game of the year. When she offers the kind of mercy I need. It changes everything… until the next morning. Now I’m her dirty little secret, and she’s avoiding me like the plague. Which makes it difficult when we get partnered on a project and we’re stuck on a couple’s trip with our friends. The tension between us is sky high. So I propose a way to lower it: enemies with benefits. One hotel room. A few days. A chance to let our little “hateship” run its course. Except when it’s unexpectedly cut short, I’m not ready to give her up. And I think I might be a bad habit she can’t quit, despite how smart she is. But we have bigger problems, and both of our post-college careers are on the line. NOTES For content information - visit my website CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Epilogue Also by Maggie Rawdon About the Author Acknowledgments ONE Wren The bar has been absolute hell on wheels tonight. Half the customers seem hell-bent on driving me to the brink of insanity and the other half seem to think tipping is an invention best left to a previous century. The cooler has started leaking, one of the vents nearly caught fire because Tom forgot to properly clean it last night, and Stacey—one of my best servers—turned in her notice this week because she found a job that would pay her twice what she makes here and it meant she didn’t have to rely on tips. I can’t blame her, but I will miss her, desperately. Both in that she is a bright light on a dark night around here and because she is an incredibly efficient and upbeat server. Replacing her is going to be nearly impossible. My phone dings with another text message. Liv asking if I can bring some ice to the party. It’s less a party and more of a wake really. Moved from the football house to our house when it was obvious that we would be mourning the loss of our championship game rather than celebrating the win. It’s heartbreaking, but between losing our star quarterback to injury and a host of other problems plaguing the team, it isn’t entirely surprising. The last thing I feel like doing tonight is going home to a bunch of drunk people toasting to a season that could have been, but I didn’t really have a choice. Unless I want to stay upstairs at my grandfather’s apartment where he’ll keep me up half the night with his snoring. I’ll probably get better sleep at home. “Can you take this to table eight?” I hand off a plate of wings to Stacey who takes it from me and nods. “Hey, sexy. I love that hair,” one of the drunker patrons leers at me and tries to reach out and grab one of my braids before I pull away. I have my hair up in two Dutch braids. It keeps it out of my face while I work, and it helps keep the tips coming, and god knows I need them. “Another beer?” I point to his empty glass. He doesn’t need one, but his friend has already admitted he’s the DD for the evening, so I won’t cut him off just yet. “Yeah, sexy. And your number.” I smile back at him like I enjoy the comment and take his glass. “Tom, could you put two more orders of chili cheese fries in for me please?” I call back to the kitchen before I head to the bar to fill up another glass with lager. “Did you see the guy at table three? He’s sexy as fucking hell,” Tammy, who’s old enough to be my mother even though we both pretend she’s not, coos at a guy half her age across the room. I glance up and see Mason and a couple of the other hockey players sitting at a booth there. He is hot, but he has also dated my roommate and best friend, which means he’s off-limits for me. And while a couple of the other hockey players are equally delicious, I’m not about to dive into waters that murky. Especially since Mason and Liam, our quarterback and my bestie’s new boyfriend, don’t get along, to say the least. When I do date, which is rare, I like my men drama free. I deliver the beer to the drunk guy and spin around to grab a couple of refills of water and pop to take the hockey table. A couple of them ask for the check and I nod. I