Marcus sighs. “Crew, you’re cleared physically. But mentally? You need to decide what you want. Because the league eats indecision for breakfast.”
He’s right. He always is. But the image that flashes in my mind isn’t the field—it’s Bailey, standing on her porch in the glow of the lantern room, hair in the wind, eyes soft but fierce.
“I’ll figure it out,” I say.
“Do it soon,” Marcus says, packing up. “Because if you’re not all in, you’re already out.”
After he leaves, I head straight for the lighthouse. It’s instinct now—like my compass is permanently set to her.
She’s outside, perched on the steps with a mug in her hands and that sweater I like. The light behind her paints her in gold.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey.”
“Rough day?”
“Something like that.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“No,” I admit. “Just… need to be near something that makes sense.”
She pats the step beside her. “You’re in luck. I make sense every other Wednesday.”
I laugh, sit, and lean my elbows on my knees. The ocean hums across the way.
“Three weeks,” I say quietly.
“For what?”
“Training camp.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you excited?”
“I was.”
“Was?”
“Now I’m just… torn.”
She studies me for a long moment. “You don’t have to choose, you know.”
“That’s the problem. Feels like I do.”
She doesn’t offer an answer. Just reaches out, her hand resting lightly on mine. It’s small, barely there—but the warmth of it travels straight through me like a live wire.
For once, I don’t speak. I just sit there, hand in hers, watching the lighthouse beam sweep over the bay, thinking maybe this—this simple, quiet thing—is what I’ve been chasing all along.
By the time I leave, the stars are out, and the ache in my chest isn’t from my shoulder anymore.
It’s from knowing that whatever happens next, I’m already hers—and that might be the most dangerous play I’ve ever made.
The night swallows the road back to the farm, and I let it. Windows down, crickets stitching the dark together, the truck smelling like old leather and sawdust. I should be listening to rehab notes or a podcast about zone coverage, but all I hear is the way Bailey saidyou don’t have to chooselike it could be true if I let it.
