“He’d done it again. Screwed up in a social situation and dragged the whole team down with hm. His new team. The ones who were counting on him to be a leader on and off the field. He’d led them, all right, almost into a brawl.”

“Zach tagged along after her, feeling like a stray mutt panting after a purebred poodle.”

“Later it will occur to him that checking your feelings, holding them inside where they burn, is what a leader has to do. Every day.”

“All great leaders find a sense of balance through their levels of reception. For instance, those who support a leader may soften him, those who ignore him may challenge him, and those who oppose him may stroke his ego.”

“Like punch through the brick wall he’d built around himself and give in to the sudden, desperate urges to touch, to taste, to feel. Krista Fucking Slater. Of all the women in the world, why was she the only one who managed to remind him he was still alive in a way no one had been able to in three long years?”

“Money isn't everything...but it ranks right up there with oxygen.”

“Money isn't everything, but it's right up there with oxygen.”