Nolan Lennox had things figured out. Named after a baseball legend, she enjoyed being the Tomboy, her closet filled with her brother’s hand-me-downs, cut-off jeans and soccer shorts. But when her first trip to high school results in a broken heart from the first boy to ever make her heart flutter and cruel words from an older girl she once thought a family friend, Nolan starts to question the very person she thought she was and wonders if her humble upbringing can compete with the afforded luxuries of her privileged peers.
Throughout the next four years, Nolan struggles to maintain herself throughout her path of discovery, learning just how cruel teenagers can be through the pressures of underage drinking, sexuality and class. And despite how life seems to continue to work against her, she still manages to listen to her heart, falling deeper and deeper for the guy the entire town adores, even if he only sees her as a friend. Can Nolan strike a compromise between her own integrity and the boy she loves? And can she make him notice her before it’s too late?
Reed Johnson came to Coolidge High School with a lot of fanfare. The son of a hometown football legend and the brother of a local football hero, Reed wore all the pressures of carrying a town without hope into the spotlight. Thankfully, he had the talent to back it up. But when he meets a girl who makes him think twice about exactly what being a hero means, he starts to wonder if following in his brother’s footsteps might be all wrong.
Nolan Lennox was everything that was opposite of expected. She didn’t flirt, she didn’t drink and she didn’t sleep around. Nothing about her was easy, but something about her made Reed want to try harder. Though she didn’t look the part, she seemed to be spending a lot of time in Reed’s thoughts, and he wondered if she could be the one who made it all worthwhile. But could Reed handle letting her down? And would breaking her heart break him beyond repair?
Waiting on the Sidelines explores young love to its fullest, exposing how real young heartbreak and passion is and how important it is to discover yourself and hold onto your own identity. The story follows two young characters as they deal with mature situations, including the prevalence of bullying and promiscuity in today’s high school setting. Ultimately, Waiting on the Sidelines is a story of hope, honesty and those powerful, first true loves—the ones worth holding onto at any cost.
They fell in love in high school and found their way back to one another despite the odds. But can first loves really be forever?
For Reed Johnson, the dream was always football. But then Nolan Lennox took over his heart. She was the good girl who made him want to be better—made him whole. Whatever man he was becoming, he owed to her. The life he dreamed of was right there to take—bowl games, national championships, and maybe…going pro. But a hundred of miles of desert between them and four long years of college ahead might prove to be the toughest challenger of all.
Hearts can’t help but want to play defense when they’re wounded, and some wounds seem impossible to heal. But Reed Johnson isn’t the kind of man who backs down from the challenge. He digs in, and he fights—just like the woman he loves taught him to do.
But is he willing to give up his first love just to keep his true love? Or will he be too late?
The Hail Mary
Waiting Series Book 3
Adult Contemporary Romance, Coming of Age TrilogySixteen years is a long time. In a marriage, it’s a milestone. On the gridiron, it’s a miracle. Reed Johnson wants more time for everything, but time is funny that way.
It can be cruel.
With a body that can’t quite take the hits it used to and a heart tired of being torn in two different directions, Reed is faced with a reality he’s not quite ready for—life without the game. He became a man under Friday night game lights and in college stadium tunnels, and without the grit and the glory that’s earned ten yards at a time, he’s afraid of what kind of man he’ll be.
But there’s more than a game at stake now.
Reed’s wife, Nolan, is afraid too. She’s seen what can happen when the love of her life pushes himself too hard, and she can’t escape the nightmares she relives after almost losing her entire world to one single play on the field.
There is no compromise when it comes to football. Same goes for the heart. You’re either all in, or you get crushed. For Reed and Nolan, the clock is ticking down. Time…it does that. One way or another, they’re going to have to make a choice.
This is their hail Mary.
This is win or lose.
(The Hail Mary is book 3 in The Waiting Series, which follows high school sweethearts Reed Johnson and Nolan Lennox through football, life, love and everything messy that goes along with it. The series begins with Waiting on the Sidelines and Going Long.)
Reed wrote Nolan a Love Note last year – did you see it?
OMG Reed’s note is the cutest!
Keep reading to see the full Love Note!
Dear Noles,
This isn’t how I pictured getting you the world’s best Valentine’s Day present, but it seems that Mother Nature really wants to involve hefty shipping costs and a FedEx man (who I explicitly requested to be NOT GOOD LOOKING) in this most commercially romantic day of days. I know you think I don’t always listen, and honestly…yeah…sometimes I space out. But I was listening then…when you thought I was asleep on our wedding night, and you whispered all of those super sappy things at my side, broken up with soft kisses on my shoulder. It took everything I had in me not to startle you or slip into a huge grin. I didn’t want to interrupt you, though. For all of the times I’d made you feel bad when we were young, here you were making me feel like a hero. Like YOUR hero. And this one thing that you said…just for my ears alone…really dug in and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I think about it when I’m lonely, which now that I’m snowed in after an NFL meeting in Buffalo is a lot, and I think about it when I’m scared, which now that I have three years locked up with a young offensive line watching after my ass, is a lot. I think these words when I call you from the road, when I kiss you hello, and hold you before a goodbye. I think about this when I look at the life we made together. And I think about it when I pray we’re never done. You always said you liked those signs with sayings people hang up in their homes, and I just thought maybe you should have one with us…and a saying of your own. So this print I had made from outtakes from our engagement photos is for you to hang up in our home wherever you’d like. I’ll take credit for the idea, but the words…those are all you.
“I double-dog dare you to grow old with me.”
Love,
Reed
Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice Award-nominated author of several young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, The Girl I Was Before, Wild Reckless, Wicked Restless, In Your Dreams, The Hard Count, and Hold My Breath.
A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website.
When she’s not writing, the odds are high that she’s somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork ’em, Devils).
I just stumbled onto this blog but WOW!!!
Love this series!! This is soooo good. Thank you so much for posting this!