Page 117 of Love, Literature, and the Linebacker

I lead her away from the track, somewhere quieter. The walk feels longer than it should.

I’ve imagined telling her in a dozen different ways.

In the parking lot after a game.

On the phone late at night.

Maybe sitting somewhere calm, where the words wouldn’t feel like they had teeth.

Not here, with the smell of exhaust in the air and arcade noise buzzing through the walls.

But maybe there’s no perfect place for a conversation like this.

Maybe there’s only the truth, and the moment you stop pretending it can wait.

I look at her and feel everything at once—love, hope, fear, the sharp ache of knowing that this might be the first time we say something to each other that can’t be softened once it lands.

I take a breath.

“Coach heard from Ray yesterday. If I don’t get drafted, the Larks want to pursue me as a priority free agent.”

Her face brightens. “Dylan, that’s incredible.”

“It is. But it could also mean California.”

Her smile slowly fades.

“I need to ask you something,” I say. “And I’m not asking for a promise. Could you ever see yourself coming with me?”

Her eyes widen—not in shock, but under the weight of the question.

“I’m not asking you to decide today,” I clarify.

She looks down at our hands, fingers fidgeting.

“I don’t know, Dylan,” she says quietly. “I love you. But that’s a lot. I’ve never lived anywhere else. My family’s here. My whole life is here.”

Each word lands carefully. Honestly.

“It’s not that I don’t want to be with you,” she adds.

I nod, even though something inside me aches.

I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

But hearing it out loud makes it real.

Part of me wants to tell her it’s okay. That I understand. That she doesn’t owe me some dramatic leap into the unknown just because I love her.

And I do understand.

That’s what makes this hurt.

Lucy isn’t refusing me. She’s being honest. The same way she always is.

Asking her to leave everything behind isn’t a small thing.

Her life is not something she can fold into a suitcase simply because I ask. I understand that. I just hate that understanding does nothing to make the distance smaller.