#Teaser
“So, basically…” Deep breath. “It’s likely that my bits got slammed so hard, and my d!ck is so big, that everything knocked into the rest of my body and broke stuff?”
The doctor nodded. “Most likely.”
This book has:
๐ A pro football player who’s been secretly in love with her
๐ A heroine who quits law to open a chocolate shop
๐ The best “just friends” energy you’ve been waiting for
๐ SNEAK PEEK ๐
“He was mine the way a person becomes yours so slowly you can’t point to the exact moment it happened.”
A sneak peek from IN THE FRIEND ZONE by @HovlandWrites!
Brother’s best friend. He falls first. A pro football player who sends her peach emojis when she’s spiraling.
#Preorder now → christinahovland.com/itfz
Emily Sinclair lives by the Rule of Three: work hard, stay organized, and never, under any circumstances, look at Finn Taylor as anything other than her brother’s best friend.
Finn has always been her safe harbor. The late-night phone call. The permanent plus-one. The only person who knows she’d rather temper chocolate than draft a legal brief. He is also the pro football star whose career just slammed into a brick wall of a humiliating season-ending injury.
When Finn’s confidence hits rock bottom, Emily does what she does best. She makes a plan. She will help him through rehab, and in return, he will help her transform a dusty storefront into the chocolate shop of her dreams.
Simple.
Except somewhere between physical therapy sessions and renovation dust, the lines they spent a decade drawing start to blur. Finn is not just offering tool-belt advice anymore. He is looking at her with a hunger that has nothing to do with truffles.
Breaking her overprotective brother’s one rule was supposed to be the hard part.
But as the friend zone disappears in the rearview mirror, Emily realizes the real danger is not losing her heart.
It is risking the one relationship she has never been able to live without.
Because if this goes wrong, she does not just lose a boyfriend.
She loses Finn.
• Brother’s Best Friend
• Friends to Lovers
• Sports Romance
• Forced Proximity
• He Falls First
• Off Limits
!!! Exclusive Sneak Peek Excerpt !!!
In the Friend Zone by Christina Hovland
“Finn and I are just friends,” I told Dallas, watching the TV screens in the dive bar where we’d decided to watch the big game. “I mean, he’s always been there. When things get messy or I get spirally? He’s really good at perspective.”
She nodded like that made perfect sense. And maybe it did.
“And he’s not bad to look at, either,” she said with a snort.
“No. No, he’s not,” I agreed.
He’d always been my distraction.
My bright orange human life vest. A reminder that not everything needed to be structured or scrubbed clean. Some things could be spontaneous. Some things could just be joy. Like lemon drop cocktails with Buffalo wings and the shriek of fans in a too-loud bar.
I let myself exhale, really exhale, sinking back as the game volume surged and the first whistle echoed through the room.
The TV volume spiked just enough to slice through the bar chatter like a beer-soaked drumroll.
“And there he is,” one of the announcers declared, voice smooth over the roar of the virtual stadium. “Finn Taylor’s been unstoppable this season. Breakaway speed and a vertical that defies common sense.”
I smiled, because he wasn’t wrong. That was the kind of line written specifically to be replayed on highlight reels.
Finn was three steps past incredible when his game was on. A blur of motion wrapped in a Stallions jersey marked with the number eight and some serious up-for-anything swagger.
Was there pride in that smile? Yes, because he was a freakishly good athlete.
But also because that was Finn. Goofy, effortless Finn who sent me peach emojis when he knew I needed a laugh and dragged me out of my existential spirals with Doritos and bad dad jokes.
On-screen, he jogged across the field, helmet tucked under one arm, grinning like he’d just been told there was a double rainbow and happy hour in the end zone.
The woman two stools down grabbed her friend’s wrist. “Okay but hear me out: I’d fake a concussion for a chance to jump that man.”
I nearly choked on my lemon drop.
Dallas pursed her lips together, eyes huge as the woman continued, “Right? Straight-up give a wobble and a blank stare if it means he’s gonna show me how to get tackled.”
“Ma’am,” I muttered, sipping calmly, “please hydrate and take several deep breaths.”
Because yeah. That was Finn out there. All muscle and ridiculously distracting biceps, sprinting into living rooms and fantasy leagues across America. Women noticed Finn with full commitment.
There had always been a girlfriend rotating through his orbit. Someone short-term and fun and going nowhere in particular.
No one his exact match. No one who made him stay.
Not that I tracked it or anything.
And he was mine. Not like mine-mine. But mine the way you claim a good seat at the bar… comfortable.
He was mine the way a person becomes yours so slowly you can’t point to the exact moment it happened.
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#FriendsToLovers
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