Taryn:

My life in the NFL is a dream. Paid to play ball, to hang out with my team, to travel all across the country. I have everything I ever hoped for.

Except the guts to come out.

When my boyfriend gets tired of hiding in the closet and walks out on me, I make an easy decision: no more dating until I’m through with football. These are the best years of my career, and there’s no telling when retirement will hit. Head down. Focus. No regrets.

And then I wake up from a drunken night out with the team to find a new number in my phone. A Friend.

He doesn’t know who I am and I don’t know who he is, and having someone to talk to anonymously is freeing. He’s funny and a total flirt. The first name on my phone when I wake and the last person I speak to before I fall asleep at night.

He’s also the man I’m falling for.

I want to meet him, but that means revealing who I am, and as much as I want to trust him, it’s still risky. Risky he’ll out me. Risky someone will see us together.

I promised myself no more dating for this reason.

But he makes me want to take the risk.

(This title was previously published as Bet on Me as part of the Love’s A Gamble series. No content has been changed within the book.)