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Lastly, Jace beams at his grandpa, looking ever so dapper in a crisp black tux. “You look so good!”
“Jen helped me get ready,” he tells us, turning slowly to show off his fit. “Seems a lot for a basketball game, though.”
We all sit together around a large round table as the night continues, talking while eating. Well, everyone else talks while Jace sits back, listening. Jace could happily live the rest of his life without the fanfare that surrounds him, as long as he had basketball, video games, and the people right here at this table.
I settle my hand on his leg and lean into him as his arm goes around my shoulders. “I can’t believe you got them all here,” he murmurs.
“As if they’d miss this for the world.”
Soon enough, the awards start, one after the other, and it’s no surprise when Jace wins the final one—Most Valuable Player.
I’d asked him a few days ago if he’d prepared a speech, and his response was to shrug, then stare blankly into space for ten minutes.
I haven’t asked him about it since.
Jace approaches the stage, and our table remains classy for his sake, keeping our claps and cheers to a minimum. Later, when it’s just us, we’ll pile on him and scream our elation right in his face.
Jace is on the stage now, the trophy on the podium in front of him, and he leans down into the microphone and…groans.
This garners a few chuckles from his coaching staff and fellow players, because it’s well known that Jace isn’t one for words. In fact, the first post-game interview Jace ever did, he was asked, “What do you think makes you a great player?”
And Jace responded, glaring at the interviewer, “Huh?”
Now, he looks out at the rest of us watching, waiting for him to speak. “I hope you all realize that this is what two years of mandatory media training looks like on me.”
The room fills with bursts of laughter, and one of his teammates yells, “You got this, Rivera!”
Jace shakes his head. “I very much donotgot this, but thanks for your confidence,” he murmurs, chuckling lightly. “It’s kind of funny, though, how they make you do that media training, and I don’t know why I hadn’t expected it…” His shoulders relax as he stands slightly taller, easing into whatever he plans to say next. “As an athlete, I’ve trained my body to push the boundaries of peak physical condition. I’ve trained my mind to endure beyond what my body can’t. But what I didn’t train for is this… to speak to a room full of people who actually want to hear what I have to say.” Jace shifts from one foot to the other as he clears his throat, then continues. “One of the first things they do in media training is give you a list of questions that you should be able to answer at the drop of a hat. Easy for some, but for me…” He breaks off, laughing once. “Anyway, I remember getting the questions and flying through them, not really caring about the answers. I figured I could just make shit up as I go.”
Another bout of laughter, and then it’s quiet again.
“But there was one question on the list that I just… did not know how to answer,” he says, looking out at his audience until his eyes meet mine. “The question was:What defining decision in your life got you towhere you are today?” He pauses there, his gaze shifting, his mind thinking. “I know the predictable answer would be something to do with the sport we all love, like the first time Idecidedto pick up a basketball. Or the time Idecidedto ask my parents to sign me up for a travel team. I bet half the guys here have that same answer memorized.”
The room fills with quiet chuckles, because it’strue, and they all know it.
“But for me…” he says, “it wasn’t basketball or playing on a team. For me, it was my girlfriend’s eighteenth birthday.”
I gasp while others snicker, and it takes a moment for me to realize what’s funny.
It takes Jace even longer. “No, wait,” he chuckles. “We werebotheighteen. I wasn’t being a creep, I promise.” He shakes his head, his smile fading as he adds, “You see, Harlow had moved into town the summer before our senior year, and she just so happened to move right next door. We ended up at the same school, and even at the same job, and now that I think about it… she may have been stalking me.”
Laughter erupts, mine included, and Istilllove Jace and his jokes. Now more than ever.
“We used to work at this roller skating rink, and one night—before we were even together—we were the last ones there after closing, and she confided it was her birthday and that she didn’t have anyone around to celebrate with. The rink holds kids’ birthday parties, so I stole a cake mix from the pantry—sorry, Lana—and then I practically invited myself into her home so I could at least make her a birthday cake… It didnotend well.”
I smile, the single memory from years ago flooding my heart, my mind, all while trying to skip forward to exactly where this speech is going right now.
“It ended up being nothing more than a soggy mess in a cake tin.” He pauses, waiting for the quiet giggles to end. “But Harlow—my sweet, empathetic,beautifulHarlow…” Coos fill the air, and beside me, Dad reaches out, stroking my shoulder. “She didn’t want me to feel bad about it, assuring me it would be fine to eat, and so she took out a spoon and scooped up what can only be described asooze.Then shebrought it to her open mouth, and I panicked, tried to stop her, but all I did was knock her hand and theoozeended up all over her face.” He chuckles when everyone else does, then waits a beat before continuing. “I laughed, obviously, but there was no way she was letting me get away with it. She took another scoop and used the spoon as a catapult… got me right here—” He points to the spot between his eyebrows. “I waslivid. I glared at her, shoveled the cake mix with my bare hand, then said,‘You better run’and so she did. And I chased her until I had her in my arms, and once she was there… I didn’t want to let her go.” He clears the knot in his throat, his voice lowering, along with his eyes. “That was the moment I realized I was falling in love with her.”
I choke on a sob, grasping the number5pendant hanging from my necklace.
“Everythingchanged after that day.Everything. Harlow became my everlastinghope. My light at the end of the darkness.” Jace lifts his gaze now, finding mine in the distance, and he wipes at the vulnerability building in his eyes. “Many of you know that I’m able to be here because Harlow stayed back to take care of my grandpa. She not only gave up so much of her life to support me and my family, but she got the whole town involved too. All because she believes in me and my dreams, even when I fail to do so myself.” He sniffs back his emotions, and I do the same, the tears I’ve held on to now falling fast and free. “I guess my point is that I know the answer to that question now—What defining decision in my life got me to where I am today?That one defining decision, and the best decision I ever made, was being in that kitchen, chasing Harlow.”
The End