FIRST SERVE (Open Circuit #1)

The most dangerous thing about being world-ranked is everyone thinks they know you.

Theo Callahan has built a career on being liked.Warm, quotable, gracious in defeat, he is the kind of player the crowd cheers even when he loses, which lately has been often.His game is slipping, his ranking sliding, and somewhere in a tunnel after another early exit, he realizes he has been performing so long he has forgotten what he was performing for.

Then a sponsor puts him in a room with his opposite.

Quiet, precise, and relentlessly strategic, his new doubles partner says less and means more than anyone Theo has ever met.Their partnership begins as a transaction.It becomes a language. And somewhere between late-night diner booths, rain delays, and hotel corridors with terrible lighting, something else entirely starts to form.

But when cameras, a brand deal, and one press conference threaten to unravel everything, Theo does what he does best. He performs. Smooth, controlled, devastatingly convincing, and completely wrong.

The court has always been where Theo hides. This time, it might be where he has to stop.

For readers who want the slow burn to earn every degree, this is a story about two men who spent their careers not needing anyone, discovering to their mutual inconvenience that they do. Achingly specific, genuinely spicy where it counts, and emotionally precise in the best possible way.

The most romantic gesture in any room is someone memorizing your coffee order three weeks before they tell you why.

Get your copy today before the price changes.