Next Game I Play

Dating at age 40 is the hardest game Taylor has ever played.

Despite injured Hockey player Maximillian Wade's charm, masculine appeal, and having an amazing brother engaged to her best friend, Taylor was keeping her distance. Her no-dating-jocks resolution went double for dating "Wicked Wade" whose womanizing past was a matter of public record. Even though he's barely over 30, Max insists he's a reformed man, but how can she believe him? At her age, she no longer believes the promises the men she's known only pretended to keep.

Just like her two best friends, Taylor learned her hardest lessons about love long before she turned 40. Her ex-husband divorced her when her sports-centered career almost went bankrupt to marry a rich woman. Good riddance, right? Yes, but until then, she hadn't even known he was that kind of person. Once Pink Link Sports became solvent again times ten, Taylor hadn’t seen any reason to attach herself to a man. Dating became optional.

That decision, though, was ironic given her business provided her with a veritable banquet of dating opportunities on a daily basis. The men who used her high-profile gym were talented, good-looking, and rich enough to afford her rates. Unfortunately, most also believed they deserved to date whoever they wanted whenever they wanted without worrying about Taylor daring to use the "c" word around them. 

Taylor saw herself as having been there, done that, and gotten too many consolation gifts to prove temporary relationships weren’t for her. Instead, she learned to accept that pretending to commit to one woman was merely a romantic ploy famous athletes used to get into a woman's bed for a short while. 

Taylor wants a real home, maybe a family, and someone who'd cook for her occasionally. Those tiny dreams are all that's survived her disappointing love life.

Keywords: sports romance, later in life romance, older woman younger man, older characters, strong woman, contemporary romance, secret baby, hockey hero, younger hero, romantic comedy, steamy romance, younger hero, romance over 40, romance over 30