Teagan
It took a minute to get her bearings. She was in Josh’s car. Her head hurt. They weren’t moving. Josh had been driving like a maniac— “Josh!” He was alive, groggy, and confused, face covered in sweat, but he was alive. Thank god.
“What happened? Where are we?” muttered Josh.
“You blacked out and we went off the road.”
“What?” He was out of it. Staring at her like something was— She put her hand to her forehead. It felt sticky. Blood. Not much. She’d live. Josh, on the other hand, looked ashen.
“Are you okay?”
“Your head…”
“I hit it on the dash, but I’m fine.” Her heart was racing and she was terrified, but he didn’t need to know that. “Are you okay?”
“I’m so sorry, Teagan.”
He was talking like he was drunk. But alcohol didn’t explain whatever was going on here.
“I think you need to go to a hospital.” This was not a problem she could fix.
If the car wasn’t too damaged, she could drive them there.
No. That was stupid. She was a nervous wreck.
“I’m calling 911.” She climbed out of the car. Josh got out, too.
“No.” He stumbled toward her. “Wait.”
“Josh, this is serious.” She wasn’t talking about the car. It wasn’t great either. But it was the least of her worries.
“Oh shit.” Josh had worked his way around to where they’d hit the tree. “It’s really bad.”
Not as bad as he was. He was spiraling. She’d never seen anyone like this before. Was this how her dad had felt when he realized the FBI was onto him? Powerless to stop his life from being stripped away in front of his wife and daughter.
Josh stumbled again. She caught him, then lowered him to the ground. “Josh, we’ve gotta call someone. If you black out again—”
“No!” He crawled away from the car, propping himself up on the curb.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m thinking!”
They needed an ambulance. Now. “What is there to think about?”
His breathing was labored. Like it was taking all the energy he had to take in oxygen.
All of a sudden, she got it. “You’re sick, aren’t you?
Those pills I saw you taking at the party—” Her brain raced through the past few weeks, trying to understand what was happening now.
When his hand clutched his heart again, everything fell into place.
“The sabotage. Was it because of this? What’s happening? ”
He nodded heavily. “I have a heart condition. It’s getting worse.”
“Are you going to have a heart attack? Do your parents know?”
His face filled with despair. “I can’t tell them. They can’t know that their son’s…” He choked on whatever he was going to say, like finishing the sentence would destroy the fraying threads that were barely holding him together.
“What?”
“Defective.”
No. There could not be a parent alive who would think like that. “They won’t think that. They’ll understand.”
He laughed. It sounded eerily similar to Juliet’s standard response whenever Teagan pushed back on something Juliet said about her parents who, to be fair, never showed up no matter how hard she tried to get their attention. A laugh that said, Oh, Teagan. You’re so naive.
“They only love me when I win,” Josh said, confirming she’d gotten it wrong.
“When you fail in my family? The sun stops shining on you. When Ryder got stroke seat? Grandad gave him my internship. Now he’s going to make the National team and I’m”—he swung his head toward the car—“sitting next to my messed-up birthday present.” His voice sounded cold now, like he was bracing himself for a world of pain.
“What do you think’s going to happen now? ”
She didn’t know. Josh probably didn’t either, but he clearly thought he could still turn this around.
“I know it’s dysfunctional, but please, Teagan. I still don’t want to let my dad down. I know I can make him proud of me if I have a bit more time.”
Meaning he wanted the smashed car, the pain in his heart, and probably a whole bunch of other things he’d kept secret to stay that way. Hidden.
“I get that.” She did. But a crumpled bumper was not the same thing as a heart defect. “You have to see a doctor and tell your parents. You could seriously injure yourself, Josh.”
Josh’s desperation to prove to his parents he was worth loving made Teagan feel so sad. The bar was so much lower with her mom. Ella loved Teagan simply because she existed.
“Josh? Doctor? Honest talk with your parents?”
“Yes. Yes,” Josh said. She wasn’t sure she believed him, but he seemed more himself now.
His breath was coming more steadily and there was some color in his cheeks.
He was more clear-eyed, too. Not unreachable the way he had been before the crash, like he’d splinter into a thousand pieces.
“I just… You know Easton’s hosting the Haverford Cup.
My grandad will be there with his buddies and…
I want to show my family my best before I tell them. ”
It wasn’t a great idea. Or even a good one.
She was still feeling the sting of truth from Cam’s anger. That she had involved herself in something only knowing part of the story. She didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
He did look much better, as if his emotions had played a larger role in the incident than anything physical. But still…
“Promise me you’ll go to the doctor…”
He crossed his heart. “I will.”
“I’m holding you to that, okay? Now, give me the keys.”
“Why?”
“I know how we might be able to buy you some time. And I’m driving.”