Page 158 of Offside Rules

Behind me, someone speaks quietly.

"I still can’t believe Wolf’s missing his own gala."

Aleksi.

I turn slightly. He’s standing with Kendall and Hunter near the end of the dessert table.

"He wanted to be here," Kendall says, looking toward the stage.

"Especially for this," Hunter adds. "Beau getting up there after being the reason he started the whole thing."

"What?"

All three turn toward me. My voice came out louder than I intended, and Beau pauses onstage.

"What do you mean, he started it because of Beau?" I ask.

Hunter looks at Kendall. Aleksi lowers his glass.

"Baylor?" Beau says into the microphone.

I barely hear him.

"Hunter. What are you talking about?"

He looks past me, and I turn enough to see Juliet approaching from the nearest table. Other people are looking now. My parents. Ellie. People whose names I haven’t learned.

"Didn’t he tell you?" Hunter asks.

"Tell me what?"

Juliet reaches us. "Baylor, we can talk somewhere a little more private."

"Is this Wolf’s foundation?"

She stops beside me.

"Yes. He founded Second Shift."

I look at the logo on the nearest cupcake. I’ve stamped it onto hundreds of fondant circles. Put it on my proposal and written the name across every page of my gala notebook.

"Wolf started this?"

Hunter nods. "He put up the guaranteed money from his first contract. That’s how it got going."

"And Beau?"

Juliet glances toward the stage before answering.

"Your brother was the first athlete the foundation helped."

I stare at her.

Wolf getting quiet when I mentioned the foundation. Rooks starting to say something in the kitchen before Wolf stopped him.

He knew they’d helped Beau. He’d listened to me explain what that meant to my family without telling me he was the reason they could.

"Why didn’t he tell me?"