PROLOGUE
Present Day
“Did you just say the Kansas City Titans?”
Tessa sat across from her boss with her mouth hung open in shock. This was the last thing she would have ever expected to hear from him. When she gleefully accepted the job as one of the lead journalists at the New York Times, she never thought any of her assignments would involve sports.
“Yes. It’s a pretty hefty assignment, but it’s the most important one we’ve had in a while. And I think you’re the only journalist good enough to cover it.”
“Wait, cover what, exactly?” she asked, clasping her sweaty hands together.
“The team,” he said matter offactly. “They’rehotoffa Superbowl win and the team is on fire. Therehasn’tbeen this kind of buzz around a team since New England under Brody.”
“I have no idea what any of that means,” she responded in a dry tone. Her boss knew her well – how could heeven think for one second she was the right person for this assignment?
“It meansthey’remaking sports history and that we need to cover it. And whoever covers this assignment, which I hope is you, will undoubtedly become a huge name in the journalism world.You’llalso get paid very well. Butit’sgoing to be a big challenge.”
“What is so challenging about it? Do I have to actually learn about...sports?” She tried to hide her disdain, she really did.
“Well not only that but I’ll need you to relocate to Kansas City.”
“No fucking way,” Tessa said crossing her arms. “I have workedway toodamn hard to get into the New York journalism scene, I’m not moving to fucking Kansas.”
“Smith, hear me out please,” her boss said, placing his strong hands on his desk. “This willlikely onlybe for about 5 months. It is highly believed that they will make it to the Super Bowl again this year, which would mean your assignment would be over in February.”
“And would start when?”
“Next week,” he said hesitantly, expecting the exact reaction he got from Tessa.
“What?!”
“Listen to me! We have a beautiful apartment in a very safe part of the city all worked out and paid for you. You can come back here for the holidays or whatever else you may need.”
Tessa leaned forward and put her head in her hands, feeling her head starting to spin.
“I thought I was going to be interviewing the president or something. When you called me in here to talk about the biggest assignment of mycareer,I had no idea that you would be asking me to move to Kansas to follow around a football team.”
“Tessa, get out of your goddamn head for two seconds and take a risk. Youcan’tbe the top journalist in the worldbyonly taking safe assignments.”
She sat back and crossed her arms and leaned her head back in exasperation.
“Can you give me 24 hours to think about it?”
Her boss sighed in frustration but eventually nodded his head.
“Yes. But if youdon’tgive me ananswer,I will give the assignment to Amy, and trust me,you’llregret it for the rest of your career.”
What Tessa did not tell her bosswas that the Kansas City Titans held a much deeper significance to her than he was aware of. It held some of her deepest secrets and traumas, as well as some of the happiest and most meaningful times of her life.She never imagined she would be confronted with her pastso forcefully, but maybe this was the universe’s way of pushing her towards thisvery openand unhealed wound.
Later that night Tessa sat on her couch in the small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. She sat by her small window, overlooking the city through the foggy and rainy late September night.She had beenobsessingover this allday andstill did not have a definitive answer on whether she was willing to do this or not.
Shetook a deep breath and reached for her phoneand decided to call someone that she was oncevery closeto but had not spoken to in a while. Once upon a time they were best friends during Tessa’s senior year in collegeat Texas Tech. Tessa had only spent two years at the University, but they quickly formed a bond that she knewwouldn’tbe broken even though time and space hadslipped away fromboth of them.
She picked up her phone with a shaky hand and scrolled to the name shehadn’tseen for so long.
“Tessa?!” She picked upimmediately, with a bright and cheerful voice, just as Tessa knew she would.
“Hey, Brin,” Tessa saidintothe phone, her voice steady and warm, already feeling comforted speaking to her old friend.
