I fight to get out of the car, but I'm trapped. Rowe screams from the back. People from the outside of the car tap on the window and I hear their voices about calling for help. I try to slam open my door again, but then quickly realize it's blocked by a large tree. Rowe's screams continue making my head swim. When I turn back to her, she's covered in blood and not in her seat.

Thirty-Five.

State "Baylor," I scream into the phone.

The locker room falls silent as I roar into the phone. The line finally goes dead and so does my heart.

"State?" Coach Pete steps in front of me. "Everything okay?"

I bury my face in my palms feeling sick. The bile rises up in the back of my throat.

"State, get up." I hear off in the distance.

I look up to see my coach. The one man I've never disrespected and have always put my entire faith in. I've pushed my body to the limits for him and the team. The rest of the guys stand behind him. I finally rise to my feet and look them all in the face.

"It was Baylor. The call ended. I think they were in an accident."

Coach nods. "Get undressed."

He turns, pulls his phone out of his pocket, and begins talking to someone. The problem is I can't move. I remain frozen, feeling the ground dissolve below me. Ryder steps up to me and pushes me back down on the bench, then he kneels before me and pulls off my cleats. Another teammate raises my jersey above my head and then unlaces my pads.

I let them dress me while replaying the scream over and over again in my head. She's hurt. She could be dead. I bolt from the bench barefoot and make it to a urinal just in time to lose the contents of my stomach.

"Shayne and my wife are out in the car ready to take you." Coach Pete pats my back.

"Where?"

"To the hospital."

Somehow, and I have no clue how, I make it to the car and climb in the backseat. Shayne's at the wheel and Momma Pete tries to hide her rolling tears behind her large sunglasses.

"They're at the Piedmont Hospital. It was a wreck, State."

I look up to Shayne with a blank stare. I can tell there's more she's not telling me, but I can't find the courage to ask her.

"It was fatal."

Those three words roll of her tongue and crush my world. My chest grips with fear. I open my mouth to ask more questions, but nothing comes out.

"Miss Tami didn't make it," she continues. "Rowe and Baylor were taken by ambulance to the hospital."

I stare at her, willing Shayne to tell me that they're okay and everything will be just fine. This is all just a nightmare and not real.

"That's all we know." She focuses her eyes on the road and another word isn't spoken.

We drive by the scene of the wreck. The state police are still there along with a clean-up crew. There's a semi-truck with a large trailer and then the remnants of Baylor's car. The driver's side of her car is gone. Crushed beyond belief.

Shayne has to open the door for me once we arrive at the hospital. She takes my hand, and Momma Pete takes the other. We walk down a long, sterile hallway to a desk. Shayne does all the talking for me.

"Baylor Jones."

"Are you immediate family?" The receptionist asks.

Shayne chews on her bottom lip.

"I am." Words finally escape me.

"ER room number three. I'll let them know you're heading back. You two can take a seat."

I trudge with heavy footsteps down the hall where she pointed. I count the rooms as I pass them until I hear Baylor screaming.

"Sir, you need to wait a second." A nurse presses a palm in my chest.

"Let me go. I need to get to my family. Rowe and Miss Tami need me. Let me go." Baylor's voice is frightened.

I have to get to her.

"Let me in," I growl with a new determination to be there for my girl.

"Sir, they're trying to get her stitched up."

I push past her with her petite form no barrier for me. When I step into the room, I see Baylor being held down by nurses while a man tries to get a needle into the crook of her arm.

"Baby." I rush to her side and grab her face.

She's hurt, bruised, and cut.

"I'm here."

"State." My name falls off her lips before panicked sobs kick in.

"Hey, let them help you. I'm here."

"Where is Rowe?"

"I don't know, baby. I'll go find out as soon as you get help."

She rises from the bed with anger streaming from her core. "NO!"

"Baylor, come on, baby." I peer down and notice the man has the IV in her arm while pumping meds into her.

"Where are they?" She screams.

God, how in the hell do I tell her? What in the fuck do I do?

I make eye contact with a nurse and she gently shakes her head side to side as if reading my mind.

"I'll go check as soon as you let them help you."

"FUCK you...." Her words trail off and her eyes become droopy.

Immediately, my lips are on her forehead. "I love you, Baylor. God, I love you. Please come back to me."

Her eyelids flutter shut and I'm not sure we'll ever be the same.

"Thank you," the man says to me.

"Is she going to be okay?"

He nods. "She has some severe lacerations and a possible concussion. We'll perform other testing just to be sure."

"Thank you." My whole body begins to tremble. "Do you know where the little girl that came in with her is?"

My voice cracks with fear.

"She's in surgery right now," he responds.

"Why?"

"I can't divulge that information with you since she's a minor."

"She's her custodian and the other one was killed. Jesus." I run my hands over my head.

One of the nurses grabs me by the arm and pulls me outside the room. "I'll give you her patient number and you can watch the television in the waiting room for updates."

I nod.

"I'll also come let you know Baylor's room number once we get her all fixed up."

I nod again.

My parents are in the waiting room when I sit down. Neither of them says a word. My mother takes my hand in hers and gently kisses my cheek. The minutes that tick by are painfully slow, since no one wants to update us because we aren't immediate family. It makes the engagement ring in my pocket burn with hot flames. Why didn't I marry her?

"Do you need anything, son?"

I shake my head and then feel the rage boil up.

"Yeah, I fucking need Baylor right now. I need to know Rowe is okay and I fucking need Miss Tami to be alive again. Think you can handle that, mother?"

She cringes back with my words and I don't feel a bit bad.

"I'm sorry, son. I'm so damn sorry." She kisses my cheek. "Let me go see if I can help."

She stands from the chair and digs around in her purse. She pulls out her credentials and heads off.

"She just wants to help, State. Let her." My father pats my back.

"Maybe she shouldn't have been a bitch to Baylor."

"She has her reasons."

"What, for fuck sakes?" I roar.

"She'll tell you in her own time."

"Fuck this." I rise to my feet and send my fist through the wall.

"Sit." My dad throws me down into a chair.

I stay there with my head in my hands for the next several hours. Soon Ryder and Coach Pete are in the waiting room with us. Other teammates trickle in over time. Nobody talks as the time ticks by on the clock.

"State." A nurse walks into the room.

"Baylor would like to see you."

I shake my head side to side. "I can't do this. I can't."

Coach Pete stands before me and holds out his hand. "Stand up, son."

Like always, I listen to him. He wraps me up in a tight hug. "She needs you now. She deserves to hear it from you. Be there for her and fucking love that girl like no tomorrow."

I back away and nod. I ride the elevator three floors up with the nurse, and follow her as she guides me to Baylor's room. She's relaxed in the bed unlike last time I saw her. Both of her arms are bandaged along with one of her claves. She's shivering in the bed.

That makes me go to her in three long strides. I pull the blankets up over her body and want to yell at a nurse asking why she was lying there shivering.

"State."

"Baylor." I smile down at her.

"It's bad, uh?" Tears roll from the corner of her eyes.

"Yes, honey, it is."

"Lay with me." She pats the side of her bed.

I round the end of the bed and then fold my body next to hers. I'm careful not to bump or hurt her already damaged body.

"No, State, hold me please, before you have to tell me."

"Baby, I'll hurt you."