Dare To Love Series: Dare Me Again (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Cora Seton

Richmond Rule #1
    Set a clear goal.
    When a player tucks a football under his arm and turns to run, the yard lines tell him where he is and how far he has to go to score. Life is trickier. It’s up to you to set your goals and chart your progress. Until you do, you’ll run in circles while the defense prepares to pile on…
    F ULLBACK CONNOR WRIGHT smiled as he read Carolina Richmond’s latest post. Her Go Long blog taught women how to achieve success in sports and in their careers, but since she mined the exploits of the Miami Thunder each week for her examples, he wasn’t the only player on the team who read her work avidly. He didn’t feature in this week’s post, but sooner or later he’d turn up again. Carolina had a soft spot for him since he’d helped her make her first contact with the team, and she regularly dropped his name on her blog.
    She was right on the money this week, as usual. Like most players, he constantly set goals and tracked his progress toward them. Recently he’d hit a big one—in his bank account rather than on the field. He finally had the money he needed to buy a ranch out west in his home state of Colorado, the reason he’d gotten into the game in the first place.
    Actually, that wasn’t quite true. He’d gotten into the game because he loved football. He loved everything about it from the base physicality of charging an opponent, to the camaraderie of playing on a team, to the adrenaline rush of stepping out onto the field on game day. He’d miss it when his career ended, but he’d had a good run. Hell, make that a great run.
    Now it was time to tackle a new goal—one that would define the next stage of his life. His friend and teammate, Terrence MacKenzie, called it the picket-fence package. House, wife, kids. Although in his case it was ranch, wife, kids.
    “What the hell do you want a ranch for?” Terrence had asked him the first time Connor brought it up. The halfback had lived in cities all his life and the thought of a wide-open sky unnerved him.
    “I grew up on one. Ranching is what Wrights do.” Connor didn’t mention that the Wrights had never owned a spread. They worked for other folks and could lose their jobs, houses and security at the drop of a hat. He’d only been nine when he decided he wanted far more than to work someone else’s cattle. He’d been fourteen when someone pointed out the answer.
    “You keep playing like that, son, and you’ll go pro someday!” William Yates had been an assistant coach at Ohio State and a friend of Connor’s high school coach. The man had encouraged the other players in a similar fashion when he came to visit their team, but Connor took him at his word. If he was pro material, that changed everything. Professional players earned lots of money. It took money to buy a ranch; his father said that all the time. He’d always seen football as a distraction from his need to pay his way. It ate into time he should have spent on chores with his dad, or picking up a part-time job to earn some cash. The idea he could play football all the way to the bank revolutionized his entire approach to life.
    Where once he’d trailed in last to practice, far more interested in game day than the drudgery of drills, now he was the first one dressed and ready to play. Where he used to disdain strategy, now he studied the playbook like his future depended on it. His future did depend on it; Connor Wright was aiming for the NFL.
    He’d made it, too. First he’d played for Colorado State. Then he’d been drafted. He’d played for a couple of teams out west and spent the last eight years with the Thunder. His career had been everything he’d hoped for and more. He certainly had no regrets. He’d miss just about everything about playing football when he retired, but he’d long ago decided that wasn’t the way to view this change. Everyone had to leave the team sometime. He wanted to go with his head held high and his body intact. He also