Page 162 of Offside Rules

I remember pieces of everything else too. The hospital. The flight. Pops meeting me in Boston and trying to look like he wasn’t worried.

The surgeon explaining things I understood better before they started giving me medication.

Baylor standing in the rain. That part I remember perfectly.

Pops brings my phone and sets it beside the coffee. "Breakfast in ten minutes. Marcy left enough food to get us through a minor natural disaster."

"Where is she?" I ask.

"Work. Some people still do that."

"You’d better not be one of them." I warn. I will get him to sell the auto shop before I leave Boston. That I won’t back down on.

"I’m taking you to the doctor, aren’t I?"

"I don’t know… are you? Do I need to call and check for myself?"

He points at me as he backs toward the kitchen.

"Ten minutes."

I turn on my phone.

It takes a moment to start. Then the notifications begin.

Teammates. My agent. Kendall. Penelope. Juliet.

Baylor.

Her name appears again and again as the phone catches up.

I open our messages. She asked whether I got here. Whether I was out of surgery. Whether somebody could call her and let her know I was okay.

Then, last night—

I know about the foundation. Please call me.

Shit. She knows.

I sit back, careful of the arm, and look at the message.

There are voicemails too.

I listen to the last one.

"Wolf, it’s me. I know about the foundation. About Beau. I…"

She stops long enough that I look at the screen to see whether the message has ended.

"Please call me. I need to talk to you. I can’t believe you never told me… you never told any of us."

I lower the phone. I should’ve told her, I know that. But I didn’t want money to be the reason she gave me a chance. I wanted to earn it. Be worthy of it.

I had plenty of chances. Every time she mentioned the gala. Every time she talked about what the foundation did for her brother.

Instead, I kept finding reasons to wait, and now somebody else has done it for me.

I check the date.