Page 145 of Love, Literature, and the Linebacker

I turn back to the screen. The cursor blinks. Waiting.

I used to think courage looked like boarding airplanes and leaving home and falling in love.

Now, I think courage is much quieter than that. I think it looks like trusting yourself enough to write the first sentence.

“Still ready for your first day Monday?” Dylan asks from the kitchen.

“I’m ready,” I say.

Then, I rest my fingers on the keyboard. Outside, California stretches endlessly beyond the apartment window. But inside, home hums softly in the kitchen as Dylan starts the blender.

I take a deep breath, then begin.

Chapter One.

The day my car broke down, a boy in a football jersey knocked on my window and changed my life.

I pause.

Read the sentence.

Once. Twice.

Then, I laugh to myself.

“No,” I whisper.

I hold down the backspace key until every word disappears.

Because that isn’t where my story began. Not really.

I close my eyes for a moment before typing again.

This time, the words come easier.

Every story asks something of its heroine. Mine asked me to stop mistaking fear for safety.

I smile as the cursor drops to the next line.

Then the next.

And the next.

Epilogue

Dylan

One Year Later

The weights clang as I finish my last set, muscles burning in that satisfying way that tells me I’ve earned the sweat. A year into playing for the Redwood Larks, this life—early mornings, late nights, endless discipline—has somehow become normal. Still surreal sometimes. Still hard. Still worth it.

But tonight, football takes a backseat.

I towel off, head to my locker, and unzip my bag just enough to check the small velvet box tucked safely inside. My fingers twitch, tempted to open it again, but I stop myself. I’ve already checked it more times than I can count today.

Across the locker room, Darnell calls out, already grinning. “So… big plans tonight?”

The Larks signed him midseason after injuries opened a roster spot. Neither of us expected to end up on the same professional team, but somehow we did. Some things really do come full circle.