Getting a boyfriend isn’t on my summer to-do list. But when Jake Valencia, the boys’ soccer team’s cute goalie, meets my eyes during the trip to the amusement park, I start to wonder if my friends are right and it would be okay to let down my guard a little. He’s funny, charming, and puts me at ease with just a smile. And he keeps showing up. In line for the deathtrap coaster where I’m trying not to freak out. Making a bet with me on the mini golf course that somehow ends with me giving him my phone number. Handing me my favorite snack right before the fireworks. I know how this goes. People leave when you let them in. That’s why I’ve always been okay being the one to move away. This time, though, I don’t have an escape route. Can I risk letting Jake into my heart knowing he’ll have the power to break it?
I won’t risk another heartbreak. After spending all summer shaking off the humiliation of getting publicly cheated on by my first love, I’m spending junior year focused on getting to—and winning—the soccer state championship. When I miss an early season game-winning goal, I’ve got no choice but to ask for help from the school’s top-scoring forward—and most notorious flirt. Rhoads Simpson is handsome, mysterious, and untameable. He’s flirted his way through the last two years, making it common knowledge he doesn’t do relationships—and leaving a trail of devastated admirers in his wake. Sharing the soccer field and breakfast secrets with Rhoads, I’m surprised to learn there’s more to the guy I thought was just another cocky athlete who doesn’t do relationships. Maybe I’ve judged him too soon and there’s a real reason why he’s stayed single for so long. But with my dream of winning the state championship within reach, I fear getting too close to “No Strings Simpson” will spell heartbreak both on and off the field.