Plays Well with Others

By Lauren Blakely

Deal Ends: Mon 20th July

Dating lessons from my football-playing best friend? Sign me up!So I'm throwing myself a breakup party, a glittery fete where I envision I'll lift a glass and celebrate being free and single again.What I actually do: Drink too much champagne and blurt out to my best guy friend that I’d really like to get back on the horse.But what I truly don’t expect is Carter’s answer – he volunteers as tribute.With his sinful brown eyes and too-good-to-be-true body it’d be no hardship for me to say yes, though I certainly don’t want him to feel obligated to, um, service me, just because my failed, loveless marriage was a s-e-x desert.But since the charming and confident pro football star owes five public dates to his dating app sponsor, we make a deal to help each other out.Pretty soon, our public how to date lessons turn into, ahem, very private ones. And I’m a star student, graduating quickly from flirty banter and lingering looks to toe-curling, sheet-grabbing, mind-blowing hours of physical education.The problem? Turns out learning to date again feels a lot like the real thing. Can our friendship withstand all these late-night bedroom sessions?Especially since I’m suddenly longing for my best friend and there’s nothing fake about my feelings…This is Rachel and Carter’s romance. The tropes include: friends to lovers, sports romance, football romance, lessons in dating, he falls first.