Page 129 of Forever Offsides

“Quinn, I love you, but this secret is super fucked. You have to tell your brothers.”

I close my eyes for a half-second and grip the wheel a little tighter. “I know. It’s killing me not to.”

“Then just do it. What are you waiting for?”

I prop my elbow on the lip of the window and lean my head into my hand while I drive one-handed. “I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s worse if we tell everyone midseason?”

“I mean, maybe for Russel. I think Mason and Crew and even your dad will understand. Eventually. They’ll come around, is what I mean.”

I laugh. “Very reassuring, Sky. Thanks.”

“The longer you go without telling them, the more pissed they’ll be.”

She’s right, and I know it. Plus, I’m falling for Rhett. Head over heels falling. I don’t think I need time to figure this out with him. I think we both know what it is.

“I’ll talk to Rhett about it. Maybe during the bye week. That’s coming up. The guys are still talking about going to Vegas for Hayes’s bachelor party.”

“Not Aston and I feel bad about that. I told him he could go, but he doesn’t want to leave the girls.”

“Or you.”

“Or me,” she agrees. “I’m one of his girls.”

I smile at that. “You are. I love that.”

“Roman will just be back from Germany, so he’ll be wiped too. I doubt he’ll want to be away from Brae a second longer than he has to.”

“He’ll go for the weekend though. Maybe Hayes will stay on with everyone else who’s going.”

“Maybe.”

I hear Valentine start to cry in the background.

“Oh, that’s her hungry cry. Of course. Time to nurse.”

“Enjoy, Mama. Love you. I’ll text after the game.”

“Love you. Drive safe.”

My phone cuts out, and music instantly picks up, blasting through my speakers, and I sing along. Tailgating traffic up ahead makes me frown, and I step on the brakes. A loud bang cracks the air in time with my body lurching forward from being hit from behind. My seatbelt catches me in the chest and robs me of my breath, but saves me from shooting up into the steering wheel and windshield.

But it doesn’t matter.

The back of my car fishtails left, the car that hit me nailed the back right, shooting me into the other lane. I spin the wheel to try to compensate, but the car won’t reverse course.

Tires screech, glass crunches, metal grates.

It’s a cacophony of the worst possible sounds.

A scream lurches from my lungs as I smash into the car in front of me, and another car from the other lane slams directly into the back passenger side. My left side slams against the door, and my head bashes into the window, causing excruciating pain to radiate up through my skull before everything goes black.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Everything hurts. My head. My body. I don’t know where I am. My eyes crunch tight, but before I can open them, someone is talking to me. Someone I know.

“Quinn, you’re in the hospital.”

Braelyn.