Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Nothing against seeing y’all,” I said, “but I’d really like to keep him away from me.”
Meaning they needed to leave. Pronto.
Because I knew that them being here would allow Quinn to scrounge up the courage to come check in, and if I saw him after the six months I’d had, I might very well make some bad decisions.
He was always my best worst decision.
“You know, you are both miserable without each other,” Quincy said out of the blue.
I looked away from him, studying the list of beers above the bar, deciding not to answer that.
He kept talking, though, acting like our friendship had never ended.
Like their brother hadn’t broken my heart and pulverized it after.
“Leave it, Quincy.”
That voice.
It still had the power to send shivers down my spine.
I didn’t turn around.
But probably should have.
There was no way we were going to be able to leave without acknowledging each other.
But I wasn’t ready to face him.
Probably never would be.
“Give us a minute, please,” Quinn said when nobody replied.
The stools to my left and right emptied, and then there was only him.
We were in the middle of a crowded bar, but we might as well have been alone.
He took the seat to my left, always my left, and swiveled in his chair so that his legs were on either side of my body, pinning me in.
I swallowed hard, and finally scrounged up the courage to look at him.
His eyes, those beautiful green eyes, speared me the moment I raised my gaze, and held them.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Did you come to see me graduate?”
I scoffed. “It’s hilarious that you think I’d come here looking like this to see you, let alone care enough about you to watch you graduate from whatever you were doing.”
I was excited to see that the barb struck deep.
Once upon a time, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
But we didn’t have any fairy tales happening anymore.
Nope, all that was left was scarily real reality.
His gaze ran up the length of my body, taking in the dusty clothes and the well-worn boots.
Hell, I’d needed to shower something fierce, but the idea of a Dr. Pepper on tap had been too much for me to ignore as I passed this bar.
Now, I wished I’d listened to my inner self and gone back to my buddy’s place.
Maybe then I wouldn’t be thinking about getting something out of Quinn that I definitely shouldn’t be thinking about.
“What are you doing here then, Shay?”
Shay.
I hated that name.
If anyone else called me that, I would ignore them.
But this was the man who gave me that hated name. The one person who had said it with such sweetness before he’d tossed me out like yesterday’s trash.
Picking up my Dr. Pepper, I took the last swallow of it before placing it down on the counter. I reached into my pocket and produced a five-dollar bill. Tucking it under the glass, I got up and left without another word.
He didn’t follow me.
I was nearly at the door when a friend of a friend flagged me down with a smile.
He took one look at me and said, “You look like you’re about to cry.”
I shrugged.
“Is that your ex?” he asked.
I didn’t look behind me, but I knew Baskins was looking at Quinn.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“So you’re single?”
I frowned. “If he’s my ex, then that would make me single.”
He snorted. “I meant, are you single, or trying to teach your ex a lesson, single?”
I didn’t know what that had to do with anything, but I said, “Single’s single, Baskins.”
“No,” he moved so close I could smell the beer on his breath “It’s not.”
Baskins was hot. Don’t get me wrong.
However, I didn’t get anything warm and tingly happening to me when Baskins crowded me.
But those warm tingly feelings went absolutely electric when I felt his presence come up behind me and said, “How about you let us speak alone for a few minutes?”
Baskins’s eyes went over my shoulder before he said, “How about you take a hint and leave?”
I could feel the heat radiating off of Quinn’s back when he said, “I don’t think I will.”
I patted Baskins on the shoulder before saying, “I know you’re trying to help. You think you can, but really, there’s nothing about Quinn and me that you can fix.”
Baskins immediately backed off, proving he really was a good guy. “If you need me, you know my number.”
I didn’t.
Actually, he didn’t give his number out to anyone, being the secretive guy that he was. But obviously, Quinn didn’t need to know that.
With one last look at me, Baskins took off, leaving me alone partially in the hallway with everyone else a half a bar away.
“Come to my hotel with me,” Quinn ordered.
Of course there wouldn’t be a nice, polite request from Quinn Carter.