[Study Abroad 03] • Lessons in Letting Go

** *“Ten minutes ago, I was just an American student studying abroad in Spain. But now? Now I’m a professional soccer player’s muse. His good luck charm...”* **

Soccer star Rhys Maddox’s recovery from an injury isn’t going well—until one night with a beautiful American and a few terrible pick-up lines changes everything. With Laura at his side, he plays smarter, runs faster, and fights harder than he ever has on the pitch. She’s just the good luck charm he needs to turn his flailing career around.

Laura Bennet begins her semester in Madrid with plans to ditch bad habits and worse boyfriends. But when she unexpectedly gets caught up in Rhys's A-list life, her plans are put on hold. Who *wouldn’t* skip class to fly on a private jet with a studly Welsh footballer? It’s a no brainer, or so she thinks. Turns out Rhys’s glamorous lifestyle hides an obsession with appearances—an obsession that makes her totally miserable. Determined to take back her happiness, Laura decides to dump Rhys and tackle a “Spain Bucket List” on her own.

**But Rhys isn’t letting his good luck charm go without a fight. He’s spent his entire life trying to earn his way into the big leagues, and he’ll do anything to win—even risk his carefully crafted image to help Laura with her bucket list. Will he be able to let go of his ego? Or will he and Laura ultimately let go of each other?**

**Excerpt from LESSONS IN LETTING GO – Copyright 2016 by Jessica Peterson/Peterson Paperbacks**

I wonder if Rhys Maddox would be an *unreal* lay. A trophy lay, one for the books, and not just because he’s the super hot footballer of my dreams. He’d be intense, athletic. Hard in all the right places.

For God’s *sake* he is smoking hot. He’s an athlete, with an athlete’s hard, delectable body. He’s got an accent, and a British one at that, and he is charming as hell.

He is asking me up to his *penthouse suite*.

“Are you really so generous?” I say, breathless.

He runs his tongue along the slick inseam of his bottom lip. “Why don’t you come up to my room and find out?”

My heart skips a beat. “Liar,” I say. “God, Rhys, you’re such a liar.”

“I am?”

“You said you weren’t good at pick-up lines.”

He smirks.

*I shouldn’t.*

I shouldn't take him up on his offer. But oh, I want to. And isn’t that what that bucket list I just drew up is all about? Doing what I want, eating what I want, being who I want without worrying about what anyone else thinks?

Tonight I want to be the girl who makes her footballer fantasies come true.

Tonight I’m going to do what I want.

And I really want Rhys.