Proud of you, Cap.
You earned it, man.
Hell of a game tonight.
Every word feeds that steady burn in my chest.
Brielle walks up to me, her hips moving in a calculated walk that I know she's practiced more than she'd ever admit.It looks natural, like her long, lean legs and hips instinctively know how to move that way.She places a proprietary hand on my chest and leans into me, but her eyes drift over everyone, smiling for the cameras she can somehow make out in the crowd.
“Tonight is perfect.This is so good for us.Everyone here is hoping to get close to you, Nate, and get a picture with the Captain.A second of your time,” she says, voice low enough for just me."It's gold...if you play it right."
“You make it sound like being here is a job requirement.”
“It kind of is.”Her laugh is soft, practiced.Her hazel eyes finally find mine.“You’re the face of the franchise now.Smile more.Let them see the charm.Make them want more.”
She kisses me for the cameras, a perfect tilt of her head, flashbulbs sparking around us.The picture will be everywhere by morning, Summit City’s golden couple.
And God, I eat it up.
The attention.The noise.The proof that I’ve made it out of dirt roads and small-town expectations.
For a while, it’s everything I thought I wanted.
The rush.The light.The feeling that I’m untouchable.
Later, when the crowd thins and the music dulls, I’ll realize I can’t hear my own heartbeat anymore.
But right now?
Right now, I’m flying.
Chapter 2 - Tessa
1 Year Ago
The dirt is starting to thaw, soft enough that my boots sink with every step.
Spring is trying to happen, but winter hasn’t quite let go yet.The air smells like damp earth and frost-covered pine, and when I exhale, my breath still ghosts white.
I stand a few feet away from a front porch that feels both familiar and foreign, staring at the house that’s supposed to be mine now.
I haven’t seen it in years.It doesn’t feel like a memory so much as a ghost of one.With fragments of laughter, sunlight through the kitchen window, my dad's chilli cooking on the stove, the warm corn bread he would bake in the cast iron pan in the old wood cook top, wood crackling in the fireplace and the sound of gravel under tires.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, remembering a tire swing out back and a river somewhere nearby.I remember my dad’s voice, low and certain, calling my name.The laugh lines that hugged his chocolate brown eyes.
And then I remember it all ending, my mom yelling from the car, telling me to hurry up, that we had to go.
They divorced when I was six.Messy doesn’t even begin to cover it.
My mom always wanted more, bigger, louder, shinier.More cities, more chances, more people to tell her how right she was for leaving.She was the type of woman who was never happy or settled.I don't think she ever figured out what she was chasing.And that, more than anything, I learned from my mom, taught me the kind of life I wanted to live.
My dad wanted quiet.A life he could hold in his hands.The life they had promised to build together.He never changed.He was the rock...a mountain really, and my mom, well, she was a tornado.
He tried to get me to come for the summer.My mom always had an excuse: money, logistics, guilt.She would threaten to make her full-time custody legal, and he didn't want to fight for me.Or so she said.The one summer I did come, it was awkward but… nice.He wasn’t a talker.I was a kid who filled silence with exploring the world around me, and he never quite knew what to do with that.But we found a rhythm.The last night I was here, he grilled burgers and asked if I’d had a good time.I said yes.Then I asked if I could stay for a full year.He didn’t answer, just gave me a look that felt almost sad that I didn't understand at the time.Later, when I told my mom I wanted to live with him, she cried.Told me she’d die without me.So, I stayed.
After high school, I tried to reconnect with him.Drove all the way out here one afternoon.We talked for an hour, maybe two, on the front porch.I told him I was thinking about travelling, that I wasn't ready to go to college because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet.I had looked into working at vineyards, orchards, and farms.Places where I could work outside and see what else was out there.
He got angry.Said I was just like her.
