The bravery inside Shea would break your heart. He was so brave, every damn day. Brave standing up to Coates, brave taking on this mantle of leadership with me for our struggling team. Brave to stop me that night, to stake out his boundaries, to tell me what he needed. Brave to come back after I’d said no with all of his feelings braided back up, never once letting me see his pain or the scoured spaces where I had flayed his heart. So brave, all the damn time, so much more than me. But in my bed, in that hotel room, under those Dallas lights, he split right down the middle.
