Ellen Hartman - The Long Shot

There’s more to win than just the season

Deacon Fallon has made something of himself. Yeah, it wasn’t easy becoming a successful—now retired—pro basketball player, but he did it. In the process, he made his brother’s life better. That’s always been Deacon’s goal.

This latest effort to help, however, may push Deacon too far. He’s been roped into coaching the high school girls’ team! Worse, there’s a little offside action brewing between him and his hot assistant coach, Julia Bradley. Definitely not in his plans, but he can’t resist her. And for the first time, Deacon wants something that has nothing to do with his brother and everything to do with Julia!

Julia clutched his shoulder to keep from crashing into him.

Deacon didn’t flinch, his muscles and balance keeping him rock steady as she gathered herself.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice low and much too close to her ear. She nodded, the pencil forgotten as she let herself touch him for one or two seconds longer than necessary, sliding her free hand through his thick hair, relishing the contrast of soft silk and hard muscle. He rested a hand on her hip.

“I’m fine.” Julia retreated, giving herself space and trying to settle her nerves. “My mom used to measure us like this on our birthdays. The marks are probably still there inside the front hall closet.”

He rubbed his thumb against his lower lip and she turned her back on him, manufacturing urgency around finding the pencil. To keep herself from touching his lips.

Dear Reader,

When I write these letters, I try to choose some element of the story that resonates with me and that I hope will intrigue you. For the first time, I’m struggling with this task because so much about this book is special to me.

Deacon Fallon is exactly the kind of strong, gifted guy with deep vulnerabilities I like to write about best. He has a problem he’s hidden his whole life, and it’s one that he thinks makes him unlovable. Julia Bradley is not only an expert problem solver, she thinks she knows Deacon. But it will take both of them being honest and trusting with each other, in ways that feel dangerous, before they find their happy ending.

In addition to a hero and heroine I love, this book includes a thread about the relationship between Deacon and his brother, They love each other, but don’t know each other. Ever since I was a little girl reading The Outsiders and Tex by S.E. Hinton, or the Sackett novels by Louis L’Amour, I’ve loved stories about brothers. I hope you’ll fall in love with Deacon’s little brother Wes, who has his own book coming in September 2012.

Extras, including behind-the-scenes facts, deleted scenes and information about my other books, are on my website, www.ellenhartman.com. I blog every month with the other Harlequin Superromance authors at www.superauthors.com. I’d love to hear from you! Send an email to ellen@ellenhartman.com.

Ellen Hartman

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ellen graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in creative writing and then spent the next fifteen years writing technical documentation. Eventually, she worked up the courage to try fiction and has since published seven novels with the Harlequin Superromance line.

Currently, Ellen lives in a college town in New York with her husband and sons.

All backlist available in ebook. Don’t miss any of our special offers. Write to us at the following address for information on our newest releases.

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This book is dedicated to my sister, Anne.

I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

“I’M SORRY—did you say they cut the entire athletic budget?” Julia pushed her chair back from her desk and stood to face Ty Chambers, ex-jock, current jerk, her boss and the principal of Milton High School.

“The district is in real financial trouble, Julia. You know this. The budget was voted down and we’re on austerity spending. It’s one of the compromises the board had to make to preserve resources for student necessities like Advanced Placement classes and guidance staff.”

He gestured around her office with a look that clearly showed how little he thought of her kind of necessity.

Julia’s guidance office wasn’t really an office. The cubicle was carved out of a corner of the library and assembled from movable walls. It wasn’t even big enough for angry pacing, which was what she needed to do right now to avoid saying something to Ty that would get her fired.

“But the whole athletic department? The board actually cut the boys’ basketball program? No Milton Tigers?”

“Yes, the board cut the entire department,” Ty affirmed.

Ty had been a Milton Tiger; he was wearing his state championship ring on his hand today as he did every day. He’d gained at least fifty pounds since his playing days, so the ring was probably stuck on his finger, but no doubt a guy like him saw that as a bonus—a perma-ring to match the Tiger tattoo he’d likely gotten during his freshman season. Most ex-Tigers took the team more seriously than they took just about anything, yet Ty was standing calmly in her office, telling her they’d cut the program. Right.

“The boosters put the money back for the boys, didn’t they?” she asked. Not that she needed to. A first-grader would have known the answer.

The Milton Tigers basketball boosters, an independent club made up of former players, parents, community leaders and anyone who wanted to be part of the fever that gripped Milton every Friday during basketball season, was flush with cash and power. The boosters funded all kinds of perks for the boys and their fans. Why not a whole season?

“Community support through the boosters is funding some programs, enabling them to continue at their current levels despite the board cuts,” Ty intoned.

She moved a stack of files filled with the names of kids who needed so much more than she could offer back from the edge of her desk, praying for self-control. Ty never spouted that community-support line spontaneously. It was a rehearsed speech to cut off arguments about why her girls’ team of basketball players would be sitting home this winter while the boys’ team went on undisturbed. “Some programs like boys’ basketball.”

“The Tigers are the heart of Milton High. You know that.”

Ty was right. She knew all about Tigers basketball. She knew the Tigers regularly turned out state championship teams and that the booster support for one athletic team in a small community like Milton was astounding. She knew the boys’ basketball team had fewer scholar-athletes and more kids who walked a thin line between exhibiting high spirits and committing juvenile offenses than any other team in the school. She also knew the sexual favors the Tiger cheerleaders allegedly handed out to the team went beyond anything their parents could conceive of. So yes, she knew what the Tigers meant to the school and she didn’t like much of it.

“Boys’ basketball survives and everything else gets cut?”

“Boys’ basketball has the only team with an active boosters group. Other teams can start cultivating community funding.”

“Basketball season begins in two weeks!”

Ty didn’t smile, but she sensed how much he wanted to.