Rival Hearts by Maggie Rawdon

Author:Maggie Rawdon [Rawdon, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

27

Madison

“I need to tell you something I should have told you before now,” Quentin says as he sits down at the table across from me.

“You’re secretly married?” I joke.

“Worse than that.” His voice is flat, and I feel my heart seize in my chest. I look at him and there’s guilt in his eyes. My stomach twists, and I feel goosebumps rise on the back of my neck like my body already knows it needs to prepare for the worst.

“Okay… tell me,” I say softly.

“When I left Colorado that summer, I got a transfer to another team—another school. It meant getting off the bench and getting a second chance. A second chance to fix all the things I’d fucked up and get drafted.”

“I know...” I nod. “I saw you that season. The end of it anyway.”

“You watched?”

“I mean, I was hoping you’d still do well. That you were okay wherever you were.” I shrug. “At least until she kissed you.”

“She?” He frowns.

“Whoever you were seeing at the time. After the championship game. Hurt a little to see you happy. I was still bitter at the time. Broken heart and all.”

“I wasn’t seeing anyone. I don’t remember anyone kissing me, but I didn’t see anyone for a long time after you. Definitely long after that. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

“But you didn’t answer my messages.” I state the obvious, trying not to get emotional. I’m not angry anymore, not in the way I was, but I still feel sorry for my younger self. The way I pined so hard for this man for so long. The way no one else compared. It was part of the reason I went back to fixating on my crush on Xander.

“That was part of the agreement.” He takes a breath.

“Agreement?” I echo. A sick feeling hits me hard. The dread that comes with having an inkling of where this is headed.

“I only got a second chance if I stayed away from you.” I can hear the heaviness in his voice, feel it like a pall that falls over the room.

There’s only one person who would have given him that kind of deal. One person who would have kept him away from me on the pain of ending his career. Even his own uncle wouldn’t have been that cruel—but someone else would. My father.

“That’s what he promised you to make you go away so fast? I wondered what he could have said. How he scared you off so completely.”

“He used his connections to get me on the new team. Talked the coach into giving me a second shot at life, at football, at something besides working a minimum wage job when it was all over.”

“And you got drafted and got a championship out of it. Pretty good deal.” I feel my blood run cold. The anger I thought I’d buried blooming again.

“No. It’s always felt tainted. Part of the reason I’ve felt so careless about all of this. But I didn’t do it for the career.

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