Page 25 of When to Call a Blitz

Licking my lips, I watch as the girls walk halfway up the beach back to us before sitting down. As they start to dig in the sand with no one else around, I lay down, turning my head to look at hers. She’s so close I can almost smell the fruity perfume through the scent of ocean. “I wanted to give up. I nearly did. I had met Leo briefly at the Combine and then at the draft we talked more. He saw through the facade. It was either continue with my dreams so I could support my daughter or give it all up and not know what’s next. I had to keep going for her.”

Heidi’s brows pinch together as she watches my fingers absentmindedly run through the sand next to me.

“He pulled the truth out of me, took me in, helped me get on my feet, and he’s been like my brother ever since.”

“You haven’t told anyone else this story, have you?” she asks quietly.

“No,” I say honestly. “I think Owen knows some of it. A few of the guys know I have a daughter now. But no, no one else really knows what happened.”

Heidi thinks for a second before sitting back up, looking out to the sunset. “Sunsets have always been my favorite,” she tells me, her hands in her hair as she puts it up in a high bun.

“They were our favorite, actually,” I tell her. And it’s the truth.

“What was her name?” Heidi asks, the green of her eyes piercing mine.

“McKenna.”

“I love that name.”

We slip into silence once more as the sun sets further and further.

“She loved sunsets her whole life,” I tell her, and I start to wonder why I suddenly want to tell her everything. “You knowhow when you’re young and in school, everyone kinda knows one thing about you? Like one thing that as a kid you decide to make your whole personality? Sunsets were her thing. In elementary school she’d come in with her big backpack and huge smile,” I feel my lips tip at the memory. “And she’d ask when everyone got up that morning. She’d go “Did youseethat sunrise this morning?” and shake her head like an eighty-year-old man.”

I pause, the memories weighing down on me in full force, and yet somehow I feel lighter than I have in a long time. “She was made fun of all throughout elementary school. While I was the weird kid who was the first person out on the field during recess throwing himself a ball, she was the weird girl who couldn’t stop talking about sunsets.”

Heidi chuckles next to me. “You threw yourself a football?”

I shake my head. “Nope. At the time I was actually obsessed with basketball.”

“All American Boy,” she nods.

I sigh, the smile I’ve been trying to keep back spreading further and further. “It wasn’t until fifth grade graduation that we learned that she had been raised by her grandparents. Her parents had passed away in an accident when she was four. A lot of her mannerisms as a kid started to make sense. People stopped picking on her by then.” I take a deep breath. “When we got together in high school, things kind of stayed the same. Because she loved them, I loved them. They were our favorite part of the day and she always made sure we would see every single one. If we were busy, she’d say we needed to take a break. If we were fighting, it was a small little moment we could take a breather, recollect ourselves, and the second the sun set, nothing ever felt as heavy.”

“Every single one?” Heidi smiles. “There’s been some crummy sunsets.”

I chuckle. “There’s been a lot of crummy sunsets. But for whatever reason she loved them. And I did too. Even the crummy ones.”

“They’ve been my favorite too,” Heidi says quietly with a sigh.

13

HEIDI

Leo’s suite at the stadium buzzes with people, the smell of popcorn and some kind of meat wafting throughout the room.

“Heidi!” Briar calls, her arms waving in the air as she calls me over to where she and Isla sit in the front row of seats behind the glass.

It’s a hot September day, and I’m just glad to be in a room with air conditioning.

“Hey,” I smile as Juniper and I approach them. Elara immediately leaps from her mom’s lap to give Juni a big hug, and I sit in the seat next to Isla.

“There’s a lot of people here,” I say as I look around.

Isla shakes her head with an eyeroll. “My brother has been inviting basically anyone he meets for some reason?”

“He’s been trying to make new friends,” Briar adds with a nod. “The guy standing over there? Just a random man he met outside of the gas station the other day.”

I pretend to stretch, finding the man by the buffet. “Isn’t that a little dangerous?” I ask as I watch him scan the room.

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