Chapter 18 - The Last Round
Five years after the incident, Cole and Sarah finally rolled together.
They had avoided it mostly as a joke.
Then one Saturday Sarah pointed at him.
“You.”
Cole looked around.
“Me?”
“You scared?”
“Terrified.”
Everyone gathered.
Derek laughed from the wall.
“This I want to see.”
Sarah pointed at him.
“No coaching.”
Cole and Sarah slapped hands.
The round began.
Cole was stronger.
Sarah was technically sharper in sport jiu-jitsu.
For five minutes they traded positions.
No anger.
No proving anything.
Just brother and sister laughing, scrambling, and trying to outsmart each other.
Then Sarah caught Cole’s arm.
He tapped.
She released instantly.
The gym exploded in cheers.
Sarah jumped up.
“I BEAT A NAVY SEAL!”
Cole sat up.
“Oh, absolutely not.”
“You tapped!”
“To my sister!”
“A tap is a tap!”
Derek was laughing so hard he had to sit down.
Sarah pointed toward the old sign.
RULE ONE.
Cole shook his head.
“I created a monster.”
Sarah offered her hand.
Cole took it.
She pulled him up.
For one second they stood almost exactly as they had years earlier.
Cole’s hand around Sarah’s.
Except this time she wasn’t injured.
She wasn’t frightened.
She wasn’t leaving.
She belonged here.
Cole squeezed her hand.
“You okay, Sarah?”
She recognized the words.
Her smile faded into something softer.
“I’m good, Cole.”
He smiled.
“Good.”
Sarah looked around Harbor.
Children training.
Adults laughing.
Noah coaching beginners.
Emily teaching.
Derek helping clean mats.
Elena talking with parents.
Five years of life built on the ruins of four terrible seconds.
Sarah suddenly understood.
Cole had protected her that night.
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But everything afterward?
She had built that herself.
