Crossing the line
“She’s the coach’s daughter. He’s the captain. Together, they’re breaking every rule.”
Ava Reynolds has one rule—never let her life be defined by basketball. As the coach’s daughter, she’s spent years dodging whispers and expectations, determined to make her mark through journalism. But when her editor forces her to cover the university’s star team, Ava finds herself colliding with Ethan Cole—cocky, brilliant on the court, and infuriatingly impossible to ignore.
Ethan lives for basketball. It’s his ticket out, his shot at protecting the only family he has left—his younger brother. The last thing he needs is a sharp-tongued reporter questioning his every move, especially when she sees more than he wants anyone to.
What starts as a battle of words spirals into undeniable chemistry, leaving Ava torn between loyalty to her father and the pull of a boy who breaks every rule she set for herself.
But when a secret threatens to ruin them both…will crossing the line cost them everything?
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Chapter: The Court After DarkAva’s POVThe message came just after sunset.Ethan: Meet me at the Southridge Gym. 8 p.m. You’ll understand when you get here.I almost ignored it.Almost.But by seven-thirty, I was already driving, headlights slicing through the quiet stretch of highway that connected Charlotte to the smaller districts. The night felt heavier than usual, like it knew I was heading somewhere I shouldn’t.Southridge wasn’t far — forty minutes from the city, tucked between worn-out warehouses and fading streetlights. The gym was old, local, the kind of place you’d miss if you weren’t looking.When I pulled up, I saw his car out front — same black SUV, same clean lines. He was leaning against the hood, hands in his jacket pockets, eyes on the pavement like he was waiting for a sign.When he looked up, it hit me all over again — how familiar it felt to be seen by him.“You came,” he said quietly.“You asked.”He smiled faintly. “I wasn’t sure you would.”“Neither was I.”He pushed open the door, motioni
Last Updated: 2025-10-23
Chapter: Tides Between UsAva’s POVThe Chronicle’s office looked different the next morning — brighter somehow, even though nothing had changed. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept.The words from last night still pulsed in my mind.Doesn’t mean done. I’d replayed them a hundred times between sips of cold coffee and the city’s restless hum.When I walked into the newsroom, Dana waved me over before I could sit down. “That feature on Cole? The board loves the angle — redemption, resilience, human heart. They want a follow-up. Something more personal.”My pulse skipped. “A follow-up?”“An ongoing series, actually. His comeback isn’t just one story. He’s the talk of the league again, and readers eat that up. They want depth — training camp, his foundation work, the family dynamic… all of it.”The family dynamic. My stomach sank before I could help it.Dana added, “You’ll coordinate with his rep. She said his brother’s managing his local outreach — a Tyler Cole?”I froze. “Tyler?”“Yeah. Seems
Last Updated: 2025-10-21
Chapter: The Comeback PressEthan’s POVThe first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning wasn’t the ache in my knee — it was the silence. No rehab alarms. No trainers shouting. Just quiet.Six months ago, I would’ve called it peace. Now it just felt… empty.My phone buzzed beside the bed — notifications stacked like clutter. Mentions, tags, headlines. Everyone had something to say about the comeback.Ethan Cole Returns Stronger Than Ever.Redemption Story of the Season.Second Chances and Charlotte’s Golden Boy.All noise. All surface.The truth was simpler: I was still learning to trust my leg, my body, my instincts — and myself.I’d signed with the Charlotte Monarchs three months ago. Same city, different jersey, same pressure. A local paper had called it “a symbolic homecoming” — a line that made me laugh when I first read it. Because home? That word hadn’t felt solid in a long time.My old coach had moved on, but I still worked out with Marcus and Jordan in the off-season. Tyler came down on weekends
Last Updated: 2025-10-16
Chapter: Headlines and HeartbeatsAva’s POVSix months. That’s how long it had been since I boarded that bus — my heart full of hope, my future uncertain.Now my mornings smelled like coffee and newsprint instead of stadium sweat and adrenaline. My alarm rang at six, my inbox overflowed with press releases, and my desk at The Charlotte Chronicle was buried beneath story notes and deadlines.It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t easy. But it was mine.Byline by byline, I’d climbed from the bottom of the intern list to the editorial floor. Human-interest pieces. Small profiles. Then a feature that trended — “The Heart Behind the Game” — about an injured rookie rebuilding his life after losing his scholarship. That one caught my editor’s attention.It also caught something else. Something I tried not to think about.Because every time I typed the word comeback, my chest tightened. Every time I covered an athlete’s recovery, I thought of Ethan.Ethan Cole. Still headline material.He’d returned to the court three weeks ago, si
Last Updated: 2025-10-15
Chapter: Crossing the LineAva’s POVThe morning I left campus felt strange — like standing between two worlds.Boxes lined the dorm hallway, echoes of other goodbyes mixing with laughter and the slam of doors. My room looked smaller now, the walls bare except for a single photo taped above the desk — me and Ethan after the final game, his arm around me, both of us smiling like we’d already figured everything out.We hadn’t.But maybe that was the point.Lila sat cross-legged on my bed, pretending to fold laundry but mostly watching me pace. “You know,” she said, “for someone who swore she wasn’t sentimental, you’ve been staring at that photo for ten minutes.”“I’m just—thinking,” I said.“Thinking,” she repeated, rolling her eyes. “That’s code for spiraling.”I sighed and sank beside her. “It’s weird. Everything’s ending at once—school, this place, the paper… and I still don’t know what happens next.”“You got the job offer, Ava. That’s what happens next. You go to Charlotte, become the hotshot journalist you
Last Updated: 2025-10-15
Chapter: A Future Unwritten Ava’s POVThree weeks had passed since the final game, and yet, the echoes of that night still lingered — the roar of the crowd, the sting of tears, the weight of endings.The world had already moved on, chasing new stories, new names.But for me, everything still felt suspended.My dorm was half-packed, boxes stacked like fragments of another life. Graduation was only days away, and an email sat in my inbox — a job offer from The Charlotte Chronicle. My first real job. My first real byline.It should’ve felt like victory. Instead, it felt like standing at the edge of something vast and unknowable.A knock came at the door.“Come in,” I called.Ethan stepped inside, dressed casually — hoodie, joggers, a faint limp still shadowing his steps. The brace was gone, replaced by a simple compression sleeve, but every movement was cautious.He looked stronger, steadier… quieter.His gaze fell on the boxes. “So it’s official?”“Almost.” I smiled faintly. “I start next month.”He nodded, hands
Last Updated: 2025-10-09
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