26. Levi
CHAPTER 26
LEVI
Coffee.
That’s the first thing I smell as I wake up, and the sound of my coffee pot running tells me it’s seven in the morning, time to get up, get ready, and get my ass to practice. Reaching for my phone on the end table, my arm immediately falls to the ground as if the table wasn’t there.
Opening my eyes, to find my phone, the first thing I see is bright light, and I’m damn near blinded by the glowing orb in the sky.
What the fuck. Blackout curtains are supposed to avoid this.
That’s when I realize there are no black out curtains in here because I’m not in my room. I’m on my couch. I must’ve fallen asleep waiting for Quinn to get home. My mind was racing after the day I’d had, and I just wanted to decompress and talk to her—especially to tell her about my conversation with her sister.
Sitting up, I look around, trying to wake up and get my bearings. It’s not like me to fall asleep on the couch, at least not at bedtime. I think yesterday there was just a myriad of contradicting emotions that sent my brain into a tailspin, leaving it a fucked-up mess.
Between my nana coming out to my game, then seeing Quinn there, on the sidelines and in my jersey…yeah, that was everything. But then I got the call about Nana and then had to face Ally, and it was a lot. By the end of the night, I was exhausted and just crashed.
I wonder what time Quinn got home this morning, and I’m surprised she didn’t wake me up. Then again, she was probably exhausted. Getting up, I look around for her bag or anything that would tell me she’s here, but I don't see anything left on the counter, and that girl is notorious for throwing her purse there. Snatching my phone from the coffee table, I head to my room, hoping she’s just passed out on my bed, opening my notifications on the way.
Miles: Hey, Quinn took an Uber last night. Stella and I went home at the same time.
Miles: Did she get home?
Stella: Levi.
Stella: Wake up.
Stella: Hi.
Stella: Is she there?
Stella: ……….
Stella: Duck I hate Ubers. They stress me out too much
Miles: Duck?
Stella: The fact that the iPhone still autocorrects fuck to duck is proof their AI is garbage.
Before I even finish reading their messages, Miles is calling me.
“Hey man, sor—,” he starts but is cut off by Stella's voice. “Levi Crosby, you better tell me right now that Quinn is just sleeping off a night of getting fucked by you,” she quips, but as I peek into my room, I see no sign of her, my bed still perfectly made from the night before.
What the fuck…where is she?
“No, actually, she’s not,” I say, my voice unsteady as I keep looking. Maybe she was drunk and crashed in her own room on accident, but it doesn’t look like she’s here.
“I knew I shouldn’t have let her get in an Uber!” Stella grumbles, “I’m calling her. She’s in trouble.”
Stella hangs up and I look down at my phone. I pull up Quinn’s name and call her, too. It rings. And rings. And rings some more until finally her voicemail plays, the sound of her angelic voice playing in my ears, only I wish it was her talking to me, not a recording.
What the fuck. Where is she?
Shooting her a text, I look down at the clock. Fuck. I’m supposed to be leaving for practice in twenty minutes, and I haven’t even had breakfast or gotten ready. Shit.
At this point though, the likelihood of me actually practicing is slim unless I magically find Quinn in the next twenty minutes. Although, if I go to practice, I can always check with her uncle and Ally. Maybe they know where she is, or maybe Ally has even seen her.
That’s what I’ll do.
I’m finding my Quinn.
* * *
“Why the fuck aren’t you ready, Crosby?” Coach shouts as he walks into the locker room where I’m talking to the guys. I look over and nod before looking back to Jax. “No, she hasn’t answered,” I tell him, answering his question.
I’m trying to see if any of them know where Quinn stayed last night. I mean, they weren’t around us too much; everyone sort of did their own thing last night while Miles and I hung out for a bit before I ended up leaving to go talk to Nurse Holly.
Either way, it’s worth a shot because at this point, she’s still not picking up her phone and I’m turning into a stage five clinger with the way I can’t handle not knowing where she is.
Who am I? I’m never like this over a girl. I never let anyone get close enough, my walls always up and my boundaries firmly in place—except with Quinn. Quinn laughed at my boundaries and broke them down. Brick by brick, she tore down my walls, the beautiful destruction massing around her as she claimed her throne.
Me.
But then the fear settles in. The overwhelming sensation of something being wrong, of something going wrong.
What if she’s like Ally?
Nope. She’s not.
I don’t question that for a second. She’s nothing like her sister. I can tell Quinn cares about me. Hell, I can feel that Quinn cares about me. We may have never said it—fuck, we may be really late to realize it, but we’ve always loved each other. It’s just always been in our own fucked up way.
“Crosby!” Coach shouts, and Cooper nudges me, nodding towards the door as Coach glares. “Are you fucking listening to me?”
“With all due respect, sir, my focus has been on finding your niece and making sure she’s okay, not seeing how many times I can hit a puck at a net while you yell at me.”
“What do you mean? She didn't come home? I thought I overheard the guys talking about going out with the two of you last night?” Coach Ronnie says, his voice rising, and I can tell he’s irritated, his tone getting everyone's attention as he walks over to me.
“No, sir. Well, yes. I was with her, and we went to the Penalty Box with Miles Henderson, his girlfriend, Stella, and some of the guys. I had to leave early, though, because the nurse who works with my nana called. I guess while they were at the game last night, there was a bit of an incident,” I start, and he raises a hand to pause me.
“Your nana came? Damn, I would have said hi,” Coach says, surprising the fuck out of me. I didn't think he cared for her all that much “Sorry to hear something happened. Is she okay?” he asks, and I glance around, not really wanting to have this conversation with an audience. While I try to be an open book with most things, my family—and my emotions—are not included in that.
It's one thing to talk about this with a handful of people, but it’s another thing entirely when the whole team knows your struggles.
“Can we walk and talk?” I ask, nodding towards the hall that heads down towards his office.
“Lead the way,” he grunts, and I nod to the guys before heading to talk to Coach. I notice the guys all giving each other a look, a weird one. One I can’t quite decipher but wish that I could.
I just don’t have time for this right now.
“My nana came, but she’s been struggling. She was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, and before, she had very minimal symptoms. Lately though, it’s been tough. She's been more out of touch and forgetful,” I tell him as we walk into his office. “At the game last night, she was going to the bathroom and got lost. To the surprise of no one, Nana got a little spicy with a worker when he wouldn't let her go into the employee only area after insisting that's where her seats were.”
Coach chuckles, shaking his head a bit. “That doesn't surprise me. The first time I met her, she said I was lazier than a sack of potatoes because I wasn't helping carry your stuff in when you and Ally decided to move in with each other. What she didn’t know was that I had just carried all of Ally's shit and was exhausted!” he says, and I smile, the little story of my nana making it hard not to.
“She wouldn’t have cared even if she had known.” I laugh. “She's definitely sassy. Back to the story though…I went to the nursing home for a bit to check in on her, and then when I got home, Ally was there waiting on my front porch to talk to Quinn.”
“Good. I'm glad to hear it because I need the girls to get along and I don’t want to have to fire anyone. I'd like to reassign her somewhere to teach her a lesson, have her learn some responsibility. I just haven’t decided what it'll be. Waiting for the perfect moment,” he says, and my eyes widen in shock. “All out of love though. Call it a life lesson.”
I don't think I've ever heard that man say anything remotely negative about Ally in all the years I've known him, ignoring her selfish tendencies and bitchy remarks. This is different, and I'm not sure what's changed.
“You’re looking at me like I've got a shark head or something. What's the matter with you Crosby?”
“Just didn't expect you to call Ally out like that. I mean, I don’t think I’ve heard you talk about her like that…ever.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t expect her to lie to me for years making an ass outta me in the process,” he says, and he has the decency to look embarrassed, but I'm still processing what he's saying.
Did Ally finally fess up? Did she finally decide to tell her uncle what actually happened between us?
“Oh?” I say, and he rolls his eyes like he was hoping I wasn’t going to make him actually address the elephant in the room.
“So yeah…about that. I guess I owe you an apology for the way I treated you. In my defense—you never told me otherwise. No one did. I just went on thinking you cheated on one of my girls, and I gave you hell for it. Now I just feel like an ass since it turns out, this whole time, it was her who fucked you over.” He shakes his head in disbelief.
“It's all in the past. I actually talked to Ally last night. She apologized, and we cleared the air a bit, put it all behind us because none of that matters anymore. Lately the only relationship that's really mattered is the one with Quinn.”
“Then what seems to be the issue? What do you mean you can't find her.”
“I don't know where she is, and her phone just rings a million times before going to voicemail. I'm just trying to figure out where she is and make sure she's okay.”
He looks at me for a minute before glancing down at his phone. Clicking Quinn's name, he tries to call her. I hear Quinn’s line ring and ring until going to voicemail, just like it's done for me.
“Here's what you're going to do. I'm going to let you out of practice to go find her—I guess I owe you this one.”
“I don't even know where to start,” I tell him. Leaning against the wall, I look down at my phone, trying to recall anything that might help me figure out where she went.
“Go find Ally and tell her to use my phone account. She should be able to check her location—both of their iPhones are in my phone, and I have access to their little sims, as the girls call it. It'll tell you where she is.”
Thank fuck.
“Now get going before I change my mind and make you practice,” he grunts before slapping me on the back and walking out of his office, stopping at the last moment and grinning. “I should warn you though Crosby, if you do cheat on my girl, it won’t be fucking pretty. Good luck,” he says, and then he's off.
Good luck with what? Finding Quinn? Or not fucking up?
I guess I'll take it for both.
Walking out of his office, I immediately go in search of Ally, who is surprisingly at her desk. I guess there’s a first for everything.
Maybe that talk she had with her uncle actually got through to her in more ways than one.
“Hi,” I say too loudly, and she jumps a little. When he looks up, she appears shocked to find that it’s me there.
“Hi,” she says nervously.
“I need your help.”
“With what?” she asks, and I can tell she’s uneasy.
Guess that makes sense. We’ve barely talked in years, and now we’re talking twice in twenty-four hours.
“I can’t find Quinn. She never made it home last night, and she’s not answering her phone,” I start, and Ally’s eyes widen, her face paling as she reaches for her phone and tries calling her herself.
“Shit, she really isn’t answering.”
“What, did you think it was just me?” I ask, almost offended.
She just shrugs. “I mean, maybe? But I guess you’re right; she loves you too much to put you through that.”
Love?
What is she talking about?
I hope Quinn is able to love me one day, but I don’t know if she’s there yet. I think she likes me more than she wants to admit, and I know she cares about me a lot…but if she loved me, wouldn’t she tell me?
You love her and haven’t told her—why would she be any different?
“You do realize she loves you, right? She has for a long time,” Ally says.
“No, actually, I don’t think I realized that.”
“Yeah, probably since she met you, but that just shows how royally I fucked up when I admit that,” she says nervously. “I’ve got a lot to make up for; I know that. It’s the least I can do after basically being a manipulative bitch so you two didn’t get together. The least I can do to start fixing it is help you find your girl.”
“Your uncle said something about his phone account and a sim?”
“Son of a bitch,” Ally chuckles. “I knew there had to be a reason he always knew I wasn't where I said I was. He always called me out, and I couldn't understand how he knew. What an ass.” She laughs but pulls out her phone and starts logging in.
“You drive; I'll find her,” Ally says. As we turn to start walking out, run into Cooper.
“My car’s right out front. Why don't I drive you guys,” Cooper offers, interjecting himself. “I mean, this way I can drive Ally back home after we find her.”
“Not a bad idea,” Ally says with a shrug. “I doubt I want to be around for too long once you find her.”
“Probably not wrong about that one.” I smirk. “Now let's go.”