The Backup Quarterback's Playbook

About this book:

Caleb "Clipboard" Martinez has the perfect cover: starting-caliber arm, varsity jacket, and a girlfriend who runs the school like a Fortune 500 CEO. The only problem? Chloe's his business partner, not his type, and every Friday night he watches the game from three paces behind the headset—until the theater department's chaotic, paint-splattered set designer starts showing up in his peripheral vision like a phantom blitz.

Julian Diaz doesn't do closets. He does vintage coats, one-act disasters, and a terrifying lack of interest in Oakridge's social hierarchy. He also has a habit of holding wooden sunflowers up to his face and making Caleb forget the play call. As Homecoming looms and the fake relationship's contract clauses get tighter, Caleb's carefully drawn sideline patterns start collapsing into something that looks a lot like real life—messy, unscripted, and played without a helmet.

A fake-dating, Friday-night-lights rom-com about the backup who stops holding the clipboard and starts calling his own audible. Sharp, tender, and ruthlessly honest about the plays we run to avoid the ones that matter.