Carter whistles low. “Damn, Coach. You’re giving him an ultimatum like it’s prom night.”
Pierce finally looks at Carter, unimpressed. “Carter.”
Carter immediately shuts up, hands lifting in surrender. “Okay, okay.”
Pierce’s gaze comes back to me. “This is a chance, not a demand, but it’s not open-ended.”
I swallow.
Two weeks isn’t long.
Two weeks is barely enough time for a bruise to fade.
Two weeks is definitely not enough time for grief to stop reaching for Sloane in the shower.
My brain flashes to her mouth on mine in the hallway, her whisper—I’m ready—like she handed me something fragile and priceless and trusted me not to drop it.
Pierce watches me wrestle with it. He doesn’t interrupt.
Finally, I ask the only question that matters.
“If I say yes…when?”
Pierce answers like he already planned for it. “Rookie camp dates will be in your packet. You’ll be traveling. You’ll be evaluated. If you can’t move the way we need you to move, we’ll know fast.”
Carter’s voice goes quieter. “But if you can…they’ll know fast too.”
Pierce nods. “Exactly.”
Silence settles over the table.
The waitress returns with menus, takes one look at our faces, and decides now is not the time for dessert suggestions. She leaves again.
Carter leans back and studies me, the smirk gone. “You okay?”
I exhale through my nose. “Yeah. Just…processing.”
Pierce stands first, smooth and decisive. “That’s all I needed.”
He gives me a final look—one that feels less like pressure and more like expectation. Like he believes in me enough to offer me a door and trusts me to decide if I’m walking through it.
“I’ll wait for your call,” he says.
Then he’s gone, slipping out of the booth and out of the diner like he was never here.
Carter watches him leave, then turns back to me. “Well.”
“Well,” I echo, staring at the card still sitting on the table like it might burn through the vinyl.
Carter’s eyes soften—rare. “You deserve that chance, Brooks.”
My throat tightens. “Yeah.”
He taps the card. “But you’re gonna have to pick what kind of pain you can live with.”
That lands too clean.
Because there it is.
