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"I’m on the way Are you okay, Dalen?"

"Theydude and I take hits day in and day out on the field, but there were three of theo to the hospital?" Dixie gasped and bolted up next to me She put a hand on my arm and patted the muscle that was locked in a battle-ready position I would rip anyone that hurt the kid apart limb froine I would hunt the I did

"No My face is busted up Split lip, couple black eyes, andto piss coach off I tried to call Dad but he got a call out to the Holler and won’t be back in city limits for another hour I told my buddies I would findschool Coach will bench all of us for the next game if he finds out"

The Holler was a trailer park way out in the boonies It wasn’t easy to get to and the people that called it ho to be pissed when he found out what had happened

"Hate to break it to you, kid, but once the old onna want to talk to your friends They’re witnesses to an assault I’ht"

He ree out of the bed, her curls clasped in a hand to hold theet Dalen The kid is in bad shape, and I need to call Jules so I can fill hiet her settled at her place? I know that’s asking a lot" She nodded without hesitation and grabbed soht in froet her I hope your brother is okay"

I clasped the back of my neck and squeezed the thick coils of tension that were suddenly there

"He’ll be all right The redneck assholes that fucked with hilad he called ave me a serious look as she covered her nakedness with her bundle of clothes "Of course he called He’s giving you the opportunity to show up because he wants you to prove that you still care about him the way he still cares about you You were his idol and he’s giving you a shot to reclaim your position as his hero He could have called the police, in fact he probably should have He could have called a friend’s parent or another adult he trusts, but he called you Don’t screw this up, soldier This is a ht aboutany kind of hero

A hero wouldn’t have bolted when things got tough at horieve alone for the second woman he’d loved A hero wouldn’t have abandoned his little brother with no explanation and no justification A hero wouldn’t ain knowing he was going to end up doing irreparable dae to her heart A hero wasn’t terrified to let himself fall in love, because all real heroes knew that pain was unavoidable and it was the suffering that was optional Hell, half the guys I served with had those very words inked on their skin somewhere It was a reminder that I didn’t just choose to suffer, I e I could feel aside fros inlifetime but a hero wasn’t one of them

Dixie

Julian’s massive 4x4 dwarfed me The shiny red truck had wheels that ca chro either side under the doors that I most definitely needed to use when I pulled myself up into the motorized beast I was sure I had to look ridiculous behind the wheel but the interior of the truck was nicer than anything I had inside my apart up so high and on top of so much horsepower as I did in the leather chaps Church was so fond of I couldn’t resist snapping a selfie, coh the truck was newer and not one of the classics that he preferred, I knew that he would appreciate the hilarity of ot a text back filled with question marks and a whole bunch of confused-face emojis followed by one that simply said sweet ride I owed him an explanation as to why I’d been so distracted and disure out one that wasn’t a lie We were close and shared a lot, but I doubted ere "talk about the auy you al room" close Hell, apparently there had been issues behind closed doors with him and my sister for a while now and neither one of them had bothered to fill me in Hoas I supposed to help if I didn’t have all the inforht Maybe it wasn’t my problem to try to fix Maybe it wasn’t h that’s what I had always done Kallie had to find her way to the truth and I couldn’t walk Wheeler by the hand to forgiveness if he didn’t want to go Even if all theatover so that my family could stay the way it was I wanted everyone to be happy, but spending these last few days with Church and being dropped into the center of his fractured fa happiness wasn’t enough You had to work for it, and once you had it, you had to cultivate it and care for it I liked to pretend that everything was always co on Church’s hoht That the sun had to go down and that as pretty as floere they all eventually died, no ood without the bad, no joy without sorrow, no peace without war, and there definitely couldn’t be love without the sour taste of hate You had to knohat one felt like to fully experience and appreciate the other All of the things I wanted and strived to bring into my life and the lives of others couldn’t be experienced without the furious backlash of the opposite emotion