New Beginnings

BROOKE

“HEY, YOU!” I try to sound super enthusiastic the second Sydney’s body shuffles into the kitchen, but I get no rise out of her—like usual these past few weeks.

“I made pancakes!” I try again, enthusiastically holding up a plate full of steaming-hot stacks.

“Not special ones,” she mumbles, sounding even more depressed.

“What do you want to do today?” I ask in my doggedly happy tone, hiding my devastated face in the fridge as I pretend to look for the syrup.

Instantly I realize I’ve said the wrong thing. If I remember correctly, today is the first day of that football league’s practice.

“Nothing,” she huffs, knowing the same thing.

I let out a heavy sigh, closing my eyes tight, praying. “Please! Please don’t let anything happen to her,” I whisper to myself, and to anyone in the sky willing to listen to my plea.

“Okay,” I say in surrender.

“Okay, what?” Syd replies, confused.

“Okay …you can join the football league,” I answer, taking my head out of the fridge to look her in the eyes. She looks like a deer in headlights, in complete shock at my answer.

“If it makes you happy, Syd, you can join.” I watch as her gloomy, pale face starts shining with a heavenly glow, and her lips curl into the smile I’ll never again take for granted.

“SERIOUSLY?!” She jumps off her chair and runs over to me, nearly knocking me over with her bear hug.

It’s the first time I’ve felt myself smile in a long time too. I laugh at her childish mannerisms, the ones I never want her to grow out of.

“Thanks, Mom!”

“I love you so much, Sydney. I just want you to be happy!… And safe!” I add.

“I will!”

“All right, let’s eat quickly and we can get ready,” I say, patting her back and kissing her forehead.

We pile in the car, running late as usual. Sydney’s dressed in the gear Colin got her for Christmas—the jersey, some sweatpants, and a duffel bag draped over her shoulder. She’s carrying the helmet he got her too, making my heart tie itself in knots.

“You ready?” I ask once again, with that same chippy voice I was using at breakfast to hide my distress.

“You bet I am!” she responds, back to her normal chipper tone.

“Do you have your—”

“Yup! Right here,” Syd interrupts, pulling her EpiPen out of her duffel bag with a proud smile across her face.

“Good girl.”

I drive to the town’s public football field, where the flyer says practice will be held. Syd practically bolts out of the car in excitement before I even have it in park.

I laugh, watching her dart excitedly onto the field as I go to grab the duffel bag she forgot in the back seat.

“COLIN!” I hear her shout, and my head spins toward the field. I don’t see Sydney or anyone I recognize, but my heart starts to pound out of my chest.

I scan the crowd again and don’t see him; my excited high starts to dissipate, sinking to my feet. Why would Colin even be here? He’s in Kansas City!

Sydney’s probably just greeting a classmate of hers who has that same name. I shake Colin’s memory out of my head and grab her duffel bag, making my way onto the field.

I see boys and girls, all close to Sydney’s age, gathered around the sidelines with their parents gearing them up. My eyes find Sydney—she has her arms wrapped around an adult who’s kneeling down to her level.

I start to panic, not being able to see who it is. As I get closer, I can only make out manly, burly arms squeezing her tight. He’s wearing a white T-shirt and long athletic shorts that reveal his bulging calf muscles.

My heart races and I start to run over as his arms part from her body, revealing a backward Panthers ball cap and brown eyes that beam down at Sydney with pure love. Seeing his face stops me dead in my tracks.

“Colin?” I somehow manage to ask through my paralyzed shock.

The second he looks up at me, I feel my heart awaken for the first time since he left. “Hi,” he says, a little hesitant, standing from his position on the ground and walking a little closer to me.

“Wh-what are you doing here?”

“I made a lot of promises that I had to keep,” he answers, searching my eyes for something.

I’m still frozen in place, too speechless to respond.

“Brooke…I—I miss you…so much.” He comes closer, grazing my hand with his fingers ever so gently, as if he’s not sure I’d want him to touch me.

My heart is aching and pounding all at the same time, and my throat starts feeling restricted. “I…but…wh-what about…you’re…supposed to be in Kansas City.”

He shakes his head, not quite hiding a smile at my inability to speak. “I quit.”

“You what?”

“I didn’t accept the contract with the Chiefs. I gave it up.”

I start shaking my head uncontrollably at the confusion of his words. “B-but…but…th-that…football is…your life…you love football!”

Closing the distance more, he replies, “I found some things that were more important to me than football. Things I love far more.” He reaches out to cup my face.

I look into his eyes, and mine turn blurry at the sight of him, the feeling of him, the smell of him.

“Brooke…I want my two girls back. My life isn’t the same anymore without you and Sydney in it.”

My face scrunches up, releasing a river of tears from the overwhelming emotions pouring out of me. “I missed you,” I whisper through huge, hiccuping sobs. He pulls me closer so our foreheads are resting on each other.

“Brooke, I love you! God, I’ve loved you since the first day I saw you, when you chewed my ass out.”

I can’t help but laugh through my tears at his not-so-subtle description of our first encounter. To hear him say those words. To understand his sacrifice, that he’s given what he loved most for Syd and I, is…just…unfathomable!

He came back. For me. For Sydney. “I love you too, Colin. I love you so much.” The words burst out of my mouth. He doesn’t hesitate before closing the distance between our lips, sealing our confessions with a deep, slow, meaningful kiss.

“What are you going to do without football?” I ask when he finally pulls away.

“There will always be football. Right now I’m the coach for this kids’ football league,” he responds with a proud, childish smile.

“But I know I’ll always be happy no matter what with you and Syd,” he says more seriously, throwing me an awestruck look and caressing my cheek.

I stare into his eyes with the utmost love and gratitude for what he’s decided to do for us. I kiss him with every ounce of me I have.

I’m still lost in his kiss when I feel a childish tugging on my shirt. “Are you guys done kissing yet? Can we play football now?”