Showing results for "Turner" in Sports

When I met Wyatt Stone, I figured the game would weave its way into my young heart and become a part of my first real love. When I married him, I assumed my life would follow the same path as my mother's—the wife of an NFL quarterback, with all the highs and lows that come along with it. But when Wyatt didn't get picked in the draft, everything changed. And Wyatt's light, however hard he fought to keep it alive, dimmed. Football has a funny way of operating in this family, though. It lingers, like the haze that hovers over my family's ranch fields in the Arizona desert horizon.

Football has been my life. Not that I ever had a choice in the matter. When your dad is a retired, future Hall-of-Fame quarterback, the gridiron tends to weave its way into your DNA. I always loved the game, but I could do without the spotlight that comes with being Peyton Johnson, the great Reed Johnson's daughter. To make matters worse, when my dad retired from the NFL, he decided his second calling was to take over the head coaching gig at my high school, where he had coached my boyfriend for the last three years. Correction—my ex-boyfriend.

Falling for my brother's best friend was not on my to-do list . . . But neither was kissing him the night before he was traded to a team across the country. Clearly, I didn't think things through and I spent the past decade trying to bury the memory of him. He left and I had no choice but to move on after he seemingly forgot about me. I dove headfirst into my career and after a failed relationship left me a single mom, I had no time for any other distractions that came my way.

I didn't follow Wyatt Stone to college; I followed my heart. He just happened to be there. Against the odds, our love has only grown stronger over the last three years. Now Wyatt's entering his final college football season, only a few months away from the pro draft this spring. And despite how hard I tried to deny living the same love story as my parents, it seems I'm destined to become the wife of an NFL quarterback. Forever the cheerleader. Truthfully? I can't imagine life turning out any other way.