Ten years.
That's how long it's been since Caleb Donovan walked these halls, back when his name was printed across the back of a college jersey instead of flashing across stadium screens on Sundays.
The reunion is louder than he expected. Former teammates, old classmates, too many people asking about football. Derek is already holding court near the bar. Marcus is beside him. Sabrina is laughing with someone Caleb doesn't recognize, and Evan has spent the last twenty minutes making increasingly creative excuses to avoid the alumni committee.
Some things haven't changed.
Caleb stands with a drink in one hand, half-listening to Derek tell a story he's heard a hundred times, when Evan suddenly stops talking.
"Donovan."
Caleb glances at him.
"What?"
Evan isn't looking at him. He's staring across the room.
"You need to look."
"I am looking."
"No." Evan's voice drops. "You need to look."
Caleb follows his gaze.
Someone has just walked through the ballroom doors.
For a second, Caleb doesn't recognize them. He sees confidence. An unfamiliar silhouette. Someone drawing more than a few glances as they cross the room.
Then Rachel Pierce appears beside them.
His stomach drops.
No.
Caleb looks again.
Something in the way they turn their head hits him first. Then the expression. A mannerism buried under ten years of memory.
And suddenly he's twenty-one again, walking onto a football field and searching the stands for the one face that was always there.
Except that day it wasn't.
He'd known before kickoff that something was wrong.
After the game, he'd found the note.
I loved you enough to keep your secret. I finally realized I shouldn't have been one.
Caleb hasn't seen them since.
"Holy shit," Evan murmurs.
Across the room, Derek notices them too.
"Who's that?"
Caleb's jaw tightens.
Ten years ago, that question would have terrified him.
Tonight, he sets his untouched drink on the nearest table.
"Someone I should've never made a secret."
He crosses the ballroom before he can give himself time to reconsider.
Rachel sees him coming first.
Her expression could stop a fucking truck.
Fair.
Caleb stops a few feet away. For once in his life, the man who can call a play in front of seventy thousand screaming people has absolutely nothing prepared.
His pale green eyes settle on the person he once loved enough to hide and wasn't brave enough to defend.
"Hi."
His voice comes out quieter than he intended.
A beat passes.
"I wasn't sure I'd ever get to see you again."
Comments 0
See All