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Brett: It’ll be a while. You’re at the Rothchelton, right?
Willy: Yes. Kim from your team helped set up the family suite. She was very kind.
Kim was kind? Kim?
Brett: Why don’t you guys do dinner and plan to meet up after that? I’ll come to you guys.
Willy: Okay. They don’t know you’re coming. We didn’t want them to get crushed if something came up and you weren’t allowed to stay after. Your team travels together usually?
Brett: Yes, but I explained the situation to Coach. He okayed it. Give me your room number and I’ll text when I’m getting ready to head your way.
Willy: *thumbs-up emoji*
I wasn’t far from the family visiting area and could hear the buzz when someone yelled out my name. Glancing back, I came to a stop. “Mason Kade.”
Still tall, but slimmer than when he’d played in high school, Mason Kade was one of the best wide receivers in the league—him and Reeves. He still was, even though we were both nearing the age where retirement was getting thrown around more and more. Most players at our positions retired long ago. As he got closer, I saw the exhaustion in his eyes.
It was a look. I had it too.
That’s where our similarities stopped.
Mason always played football. He’s always been known in football, and he went to one of the top teams right off the bat. But he went free agent and decided to move closer to where we both grew up. He was Fallen Crest. I was Roussou. The neighboring towns had been rivals, and it was the same with Mason and his brother with my brother and myself. Enemies. That changed after high school. Things had never been copacetic between Kade and me, but I didn’t particularly hold anything against him either. He and I had just been on opposite sides all our lives. Except after the Super Bowl last year, we went to dinner. It’d been a turning point, and since then we’d occasionally been in touch. I’d gotten a text from him a week ago letting me know they were thinking of Billie and me.
“Hey, man. How are you doing?” he asked, holding his hand out. “That’s twice you guys got us.”
I shook it, a nice sturdy handshake. “Good, good. And you know, it was a team effort.” I smirked, which he saw and rolled his eyes while biting back a grin.
“Do you have people here? Sam came. She’s hoping to see you.”
“That’d be nice to see her. My half-brother came today too.”
He nodded. “Will, right? He went to Fallen Crest, didn’t he? He wasn’t in Roussou with the rest of your family.”
“No. Different mom. He’s still in Fallen Crest, actually.”
“He is?”
I nodded. “Your wife’s here?”
He shot me a look. “You’re playing. What do you think?”
I grinned. If his wife had gone to my school, and if she’d never met Kade, there could’ve been a scenario where she and I might’ve had a situation. Beyond that, I couldn’t say. She and Kade were meant to be, and that’s how it was always supposed to end up.
We began walking together. “Billie’s up there.”
Mason ground to a halt.
For the first time, maybe ever, I saw Kade at a loss for words. “She’s…here?”
I inclined my head. “They caught the guy.”
“Shit, Brett. I—we, fuck. Sam’s been—you don’t know. You helped her once, and she’s never forgotten that. I’ve never forgotten that. Now your woman…” Emotion I never knew Mason Kade was capable of washed over his face before he blinked a few times and swept it away. He cleared his throat. “We’re here for you. Anything. You name it, it’s done. I mean it.”
I nodded. “I appreciate that.”
“I mean it.”
Now I started to feel things I never would’ve acquainted with Mason Kade.
