Tex Malone

Set in the sunburned corners of the beach volleyball world, Cut Shot is a sharp, gritty, darkly funny ride through heartbreak, loyalty, and the games men play to avoid feeling anything. A quietly devastating story about what it means to lose hard and still show up.

It’s not a love story. It’s what happens after.

With a career on autopilot and a relationship left bleeding, Tex navigates a summer of competition, backhanded jokes, late-night breakdowns, and half-earned wins. The damage keeps piling up, things slowly unravel, and the past keeps showing up no matter how hard he tries to outrun it.

Through the sand, booze, trash talk, and silence he stumbles into the one thing he was not looking for. Clarity ... loud, late, and the last thing he wanted.

Brutal, self-aware, painfully hilarious, and quietly hopeful in the way only real damage can be, Cut Shot is a story about what’s left when the games end, the girl’s gone, and you’re left standing there holding the ball.

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