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Kickstart
My Heart
December 2, 2025
Cover Design: FINHARA LLC
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance Standalone
Tropes: Football with a twist, Overheard heartbreak, Labrador energy hero, Friends to Lovers, Vacation romance, OM drama,
Ex-teammate + Ex-fiancée hookup (and it’s GLORIOUS)
There are more views about her engagement ending than her ex’s season opener!
One overheard conversation during her engagement party shattered Maya Cox’s life in seconds. “She’s not that pretty, but she sure is loyal.” But it’s what her pro-football playing fiancé said next that completely humiliated her.
Then the world got a hold of a video taken of her heartbreak, causing the situation to go viral in a matter of days.
Needing to escape, Maya packs her bag and telephoto lens before heading out of the country for work. After she returns months later, she decides to take a small vacation at a vineyard in Italy.
There’s just one hitch.
When she arrives, Maya comes face to face with Troy Walsh—former kicker for the Oklahoma Lightning and her ex’s former teammate. He’s also a man she considered a friend before hashtags like #EngagementGate started trending.
Troy is nothing but kind, steady, and loyal giving her the space she needs to become herself again. But the longer they spend together, his good looks, easy manner, and genuine heart make it impossible to resist advancing the forward line of their relationship from friends to something more.
Much more.
The more time they spend together, the more sparks fly. Troy encourages the woman Maya is—her fire, her fight, her fierce will to reclaim herself. But when her ex tries to reach out, will Maya forgive his cruel words or allow this former kicker to restart her heart?
You'll love Kickstart My Heart if you love:
- Football
- Overheard
- He falls first & harder
- OM Drama
- Labrador Hero
- Holiday romance
Excerpt
Troy
Then her voice comes out, sharp as glass. “Let’s talk about being friends.”
Fuck.
“All night, you’ve been the perfect host—”
I gulp as she steadily walks around to my side of the table. Her heels rap against the floor in a perfect staccato. Sweat beads on my forehead. “I—”
She stops and immediately makes the illegal block sign used by refs on the field. “You just lost five yards of forward movement with that comment, Walsh.”
I push up from my chair, heart pounding. “I didn’t realize you were ready to move forward.”
Her hands fly to her hips. Her wild curls fly around as she tosses her head in divine feminine fury. “You almost kissed me and now I’m supposed to believe your so-called rule breaking is about friendship?” Deliberately, she steps backward. “I call unsportsmanlike acts. Ten-yard penalty.”
I shove my hand through my hair. “I don’t want to—”
“What?”
My eyes meet hers. “Ruin us.”
The air between us crackles. I move closer. Even as I do, Maya lets out a shuddering sigh. “Is it because you’re afraid to step up to the line of scrimmage, or is it because it’s me?”
“Do you want the truth?”
“After everything, do you really have to ask me that?” Her voice is quiet.
“I wanted to know everything about you the night we met on the rooftop.”
“Then why aren’t we giving this—us—a chance?”
I move until I’m within a few inches of her. The rise and fall of her chest is noticeable in the silk shirt she’s wearing paired with her cords. My dick rises hard and thick behind my dress slacks, knowing exactly who and what it wants. Frustrated both with it and the situation, I snap, “What do you want me to do? To say? That I think about you? I do. That I’ve done so even when you were engaged?”
Her chest rises with every quick inhale. “I’m not anymore.”
I snarl, “I couldn’t be in the same room with you before and not wonder what it would be like to kiss you, yet I was in the untenable position of standing up for your marriage to him.”
Her voice tries to soothe me. “I’m not marrying him.”
“Damn straight you’re not.” I step closer until our bodies are practically touching. “I can’t be near you anymore and not wonder what it would be like to kiss you.”
“Then why didn’t you?"
Games of Love Series
About the Author
It began when Tracey stayed out for hours and making up stories in her head as she biked around her neighborhood in Connecticut. Writing, always a passion, started interfering with her life when she started rewriting ends of books instead of finishing papers during college. After all, what was more important, a happily ever after or Greek mythology?
Eventually, she combined both when she wrote the Amaryllis Series.
With over 125,000 copies of her work worldwide, Tracey's collection of contemporary romance and women’s fiction is available on Amazon.com and free on kindleunlimited. This includes her best-selling Amaryllis Series, Midas Series and Glacier Adventure Series. She has over twenty-five books in print and has participated in several anthologies for reader pleasure as well as charity.
Tracey is dedicated to her own happily ever after, having been married since 2007. She and her husband have one son who is as addicted to his Fortnite as his mother is to Starbucks.