Hard Count cover art

Hard Count

An MM Tight End and the Governor Bi-Awakening Romance (The San Diego Storm MM Football Series, Book 1)

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Hard Count

Written by: Emerson Beckett
Narrated by: Michael Dean
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A feel good, low angst, steamy mm sports romance that will make you smile, laugh, and swoon.

Evan Ellis
Evidently, I’m a rule breaker.
The rule I broke? Falling for the straight man with two kids. Didn’t help that he is the Governor of California.
As the starting tight end for the San Diego Storm, you’d think I had better self-control. But there was no avoiding it when our unlikely friendship blossomed, and he unknowingly started flirting back. It was out of my control.
Yes, I want him. But I’m probably the last complication he needs in his life. I was fine being just friends until the tension between us broke, and our lips found one another.
From that point on, I knew one thing. I wanted him more than my next breath, and I’d take him any way I could get him. Even if it meant we were just friends.

Governor Hudson Gatlin
If anyone were to ask me how to fall in love with the most unlikely human and staring tight end for the Storm, the answer would be simple.
Sling your drink all over him at a black-tie fundraiser. And if he just smiles and sends you flirty texts, then he’s yours.
Problem was, as much as I enjoyed his friendship, I found myself wanting more from him. But he didn’t seem to care. He saw the hot mess who needed a friend. And that’s what I thought we were, until we both wanted so much more.
This is our love story and how he found a missing piece of me I didn’t know I’d lost.

Content Warning: death of a spouse

Hard Count is book one in the San Diego Storm Football Series. Tropes include: age gap, opposites attract, single dad, long distance love affair, finding love after loss.

©2025 Emerson Beckett (P)2026 Emerson Beckett
Contemporary Romance Sports Feel-Good Friendship
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It was nice to listen to a story with challenges in the relationship, but no jealousy, possible cheating, etc.

Lovely and sweet

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