Page 138 of Forever Offsides

“Seriously?” Hayes laughs. “That’s your comeback? Again? Can’t you come up with something witty or is your brain too small and uncreative to try?”

I miss something. It goes in and out, but the words aren’t making sense. I only catch Forest’s threat.

“Remember this: everything leaves a trail. And I’m onto yours.”

43

QUINN

“Quinn? Can you hear me?”

“You’re shouting in my face, Katy. Of course I can hear you.”

She laughs. “Welcome back. Are you in any pain?”

I lick my lips, which are dry and cracked. My throat is straight fire and extremely raw. My head hurts. That’s for sure. I’m achy. And weak. God, I’m so weak.

Slowly, I blink my eyes open. “What happened? There was an accident.”

That’s about all I remember. I got hit from behind. That’s all I remember though. After that, it’s nothing.

Katy’s face comes into focus, and I blink a few more times to adjust to the light though it isn’t sunlight. It’s dark and cloudy outside, but I can’t tell what time of day it is because of that. “You were in a car accident on Sunday. You came in with a concussion and a splenic laceration.”

I frown at two of those things. One, the way she said Sunday as in past tense. Two, splenic laceration.

“Did you do a splenectomy?”

She nods, her expression clinical yet slightly apologetic. “Had to. I did a laparotomy. Sorry. You were crashing, and we had to get in fast. No time for a laparoscope.”

“Awesome,” I deadpan. Though I suppose it could be a lot worse.

“Your scar is healing well with no signs of infection. We have Penicillin VK for now, but you’ll have to follow up with your doctor after discharge to discuss a daily course of them because, as you know, your risk of infection goes up in the first few years after splenectomy.” She sits on the bed beside me and takes my hand. “Your ICP also went up in the OR. We gave you hypertonic saline, and it helped, but we kept you sedated for twenty-four hours before we lowered it. It took you a while to wake up from that.”

I close my eyes, not even attempting to move yet. “What day is it?”

“Tuesday at six thirty a.m.”

Okay. So I lost almost two days. Again, could be worse. I half-smile. “Are you just coming on or coming off?”

“Coming on. I came in early to check on you because your nurse texted me that you were moving and following commands. She thought you were going to wake up at any second and she was right.”

“You’re a good cousin.”

“You scared the shit out of us. Thankfully you’re not my cousin by blood so I was able to do the surgery. I wasn’t letting anyone else in that room. We kept your privacy as much as we could.”

“Thank you for that. I appreciate it more than you know.”

I get a wan smile. “I’ve been there, so I do know. Your family has been in and out.” She pauses. “And someone else has been here.”

I look at her. “Who?”

I get a you’ve been holding out on me eyebrow. “A certain seriously hot coach. I’m not supposed to know he’s been here. The hot older guy from the bar.”

I frown slightly. “Does my family know?”

“Only that he stopped by to check on you, your brothers, and dad. He sat in the waiting room with them for a bit and pretended to leave.”

I release a heavy breath and wish I hadn’t. Fuck that hurts.