The False Start
Lillian Lyle
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
4.25
· 4 ratings · 387 pages · Published: 02 Sep 2025
Lila Summers has a great life on paper.
A kick-ass career—where she spends too many late nights with her emails.
A supportive family—whose critiques showcase exactly how short of their measuring stick she falls.
A blue-eyed boyfriend in finance—who lives 800 miles away and is really more of a situational on-again-off-again presence.
Okay, so maybe it isn’t so great after all. When her ride-or-die best friend convinces her to give one night at the club a chance, she smacks face first into the chiseled chest of newly traded NFL Tight End John “Cal” Basset. Their connection is as electric as their first dance, and as much as they might try, the sparks can’t be ignored.
Cal might have a pretty face, but he has his own baggage. Between the spotlight of a mid-season trade, a complicated relationship with his father, and a trust fund with too many strings, he’s juggling more than the average NFL tight end, but he knows what he wants.
When Lila and Cal are forced to confront their complicated feelings for each other during a trip up North, it goes almost exactly as imagined—terribly.
Can these two possibly have what it takes to overcome their own emotional baggage and have a winning season or will this be another false start?
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