
The Center's Vow
A Workplace Tension Sports RomanceBy Harper NashLength8h 26m
About this audiobook
Eight months ago a tendon let go during a routine block and the whole world collapsed into one sound, like a bowline parting. Since then he has been the oldest man in the room, taping his wrists like a rookie, and pretending nobody has noticed which of those two things bothers him more.
The tape rips clean, a sound like tearing skin. Levi Carter presses the white strips across his left wrist, then his right, working the adhesive flat with his thumb. Three years of this ritual before every game, every practice, every time he straps on pads.
The locker room hums around him. Cleats scraping concrete. Shoulder pads clicking. The low bass of somebody's playlist bleeding through a speaker.
His left pec aches. Not the sharp tear of eight months ago. A dull throb now. A reminder. Ghost pain. He flexes his hand. Good.
Across the aisle, Razor leans back on the bench with his gum cracking and a gold tooth catching the fluorescents, sweat clinging to his shaved head from a summer of cutting weight.
*Looking tight, old man. You're taping like it's your first rodeo.*
*And you're talking like you're useful.*
*Useful enough to start.*
What follows: the tunnel he cannot make himself walk through, a man he could not save, the weight of holding a line for other people, a file that was never meant to reach his hands, the echo of a voice he misses at inconvenient hours, the view from a sideline he has never once occupied, and one symptom he passes on to somebody who did not ask for it.
*He'd kissed her forehead. She'd stirred, smiled without opening her eyes, and said something he didn't catch.*
A coffee stain near the left shoulder. A cigarette burn near the collar. He has kept the shirt.
Will what the two of them built in the season's worst month survive the day the file becomes public and everyone finds out what he has been hiding? Or does he protect the room by disappearing out of her life, the same way he has handled every hard thing since the snap?
Audiobook details
GenreRomance
Length8 hrs 26 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Chapter 1 - The Tunnel I Couldn’t Walk Through
2Chapter 2 - The One I Couldn’t Save
3Chapter 3 - The Weight of the Line
4Chapter 4 - The File I Shouldn’t Have Opened
5Chapter 5 - The Echo of a Voice I Missed
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 6 - The View from the Sidelines
7Chapter 7 - The Brother I Couldn’t Save
8Chapter 8 - The One Symptom I Gave Him
9Chapter 9 - The Coffee That Tasted Like Trust
10Chapter 10 - The Dinner No One Knew About
11Chapter 11 - The Photo That Changed Everything
12Chapter 12 - The Cage They Built Around Us
13Chapter 13 - The Midpoint Vow
14Chapter 14 - The Diagnosis I Should Have Seen
15Chapter 15 - The Collapse of a Titan
16Chapter 16 - The Brother I Never Knew I Shared
17Chapter 17 - The Visualization That Went Wrong
18Chapter 18 - The Fight We Always Knew Was Coming
19Chapter 19 - The Sound of His Voice in the Tunnel
20Chapter 20 - The Black Moment
21Chapter 21 - The Therapist I Saw Instead
22Chapter 22 - The Door I Closed Behind Me
23Chapter 23 - The Jersey I Wore for Him
24Chapter 24 - The Echo Drill I Couldn’t Refuse
25Chapter 25 - The Center’s Vow
26Epilogue
27About the Author
28The End
29About the Author
30Also by Harper Nash
31Acknowledgements
32A Note from the Author