Sacking the Quarterback by Alexandra O'Hurley Page A

fast for the hilly sandbanks.
Her stomach was instantly in her throat, the sensation of vomiting
coming over her. Damned beer! She worked hard to hold down the need
to throw up, but the more they bounced, the worse she felt. Finally
she twisted to her knees and held her head over the back end of the
truck. No way was she going to embarrass herself by upchucking all
over everyone in the truck. She’d never live it down.
    The truck hit a monstrous dune, the
tires coming off the ground before impact. The force of the
resulting bump threw Taylor clear from the truck. She hit the sandy
shore too fast, the shells and sand scraping and cutting her skin
as she rolled and skidded across the surface. When she came to a
stop, she laid there for a moment, not sure she should move at
all.
    After her heart calmed a little and
once the nausea settled, and she was absolutely sure nothing major
was ruptured, she rose on her elbows to watch the truck’s lights
dimming the farther they drove.
    They hadn’t even stopped.
    Had anyone noticed she’d fallen? Did
they even care? The truck had been at the back of the pack of cars,
so she was now lying stranded out in the middle of nowhere, with no
help on the way, unless she headed toward the cops and admitted she
was at an underaged kegger. Her parents would be so
proud.
    Taylor slowly stood, fidgeting in her
pocket for her cell phone—which didn’t seem to be there. She looked
around her a little to see if she could find the damned thing, but
in the moonlight, she couldn’t see much except shining, wet sand.
It was at least five miles to the nearest pay phone and her body
already ached from the fall. She’d only feel worse as the night
wore on.
    Hot tears prickled the backs of her
eyes. She let them fall as she started walking home. Not only had
she missed her chance to have her moment with Rhett, she’d seen
just how little he cared about her.

Chapter One
     
    Present Day
     
    “ The last time I saw Rhett
Banes, it was from the back of a pickup truck as I fell out of the
bed and onto the sand dunes. They didn’t even stop for me. They
left me on the beach, scraped and with my ego torn to shreds. I had
to walk home. It took me four hours, and I ended up getting
grounded for two months.”
    “ Taylor, it was so late,
you woulda been grounded even if they’d taken you right home, so
you can’t blame Rhett for that,” Ava said before chuckling. “And he
wasn’t even driving that night. Are you honestly going to tell me
you’re still holding on to a ten year grudge?”
    Taylor crossed her arms over her chest
and lifted her chin. “And if I am? He should’ve noticed I wasn’t
there anymore. Not one of them called to see if I was okay. What if
I’d been really hurt?” She knew it was silly and immature, but he’d
left the next day for college and she’d not seen him since. Her
puppy dog crush had broken her heart in that moment, and even if a
decade had passed, it still stung.
    “ I’m sorry that happened,
but it wasn’t Rhett’s fault you fell. It wasn’t his fault you’d
drunk too much that night, trying to get his attention, either. I
mean, come on, he was the senior star quarterback and you were a
nothing freshman. What did you expect? You were lucky to have even
been invited into the back of the truck in the first
place.”
    “ I had half a beer. It was
the wild ride in the dunes that made me feel like throwing up. And
how do you call it lucky? I still have skid marks from falling out
of that truck.”
    “ Be thankful you fell on
sand and not pavement, or you’d really have some scars. Get over
it,” Ava snapped.
    “ My one chance to make an
impression on that man was ruined.” Taylor looked around the shabby
bar. “And maybe if I hadn’t fallen, my life would’ve been
different.”
    “ Different how? You’re
about to graduate and make something of yourself. What’s so wrong
with that?”
    “ I’m still stuck here .” Taylor went back
to wiping down the