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She hadn’t reacted like this last night during the rehearsal dinner, but there had been less people…and she wasn’t still reeling from hearing Quinn’s parents spell out every single thing that was wrong with her in their eyes. It shouldn’t bother her. She knew it shouldn’t bother her. As he kept pointing out, he was going back to Devil’s Falls—the life he’d actually chosen. Which stood to reason that it hadn’t been the sex muddying up his brain last night when he said he wanted more time with her.
But that didn’t stop the insecurity from taking root inside her, feeding the secret part of her that had suspected she was just as worthless as her family had accused her of being, the part that had been waiting for the other foot to fall ever since she moved to Devil’s Falls—for someone to wake up and look at her and tell her that no one really wanted her there and it was high time she take her things and go.
Knowing it was an irrational fear didn’t do a damn thing to kill it. Truth be told, she barely thought about it most days. But there was something about being here with this man, a man whom she’d realized sometime over the last few days was a legitimately good guy. He wasn’t the muscle head she’d always suspected. He was decent, and gorgeous, and obviously insane because he was expressing interest in dating her once they got back to their normal stomping grounds.
She should have said no. There was no way they could last, and the reasons she didn’t want to keep having sex after they got to Devil’s Falls still stood. Jules would get her hopes up…
Aubry wrapped her arms around herself, the crowd blurring in front of her. No, that was a lie. She was the one who would get her hopes up. Because if this was really real, then Quinn would really hurt her when it was over. Because there was no way it wouldn’t be over.
I am such a mess.
“Breathe, peaches.” Quinn took her hand, his engulfing hers. “I won’t let them get you.”
She spoke out of the side of her mouth, pathetically grateful for the distraction from her intense issues—as if she had any other kind of issue. “What if one of them is infected and we have to run?”
“I’ll scoop you up, throw you over my shoulder, and we’ll bust out that big window into the back grounds. We can escape into the vineyards—there are miles of them.”
Even though it was a silly theoretical plan, and not one that would make a lick of sense in the real world, her next breath came easier. I am being crazy and irrational in worrying that Quinn is going to dump me like an old pair of boots at the first opportunity. “If anyone can manage it, it’s my trusty steed.”
“Damn straight.”
And then there was no more stalling because his little sister caught sight of them and waved. She wore a tasteful cream cocktail dress that would have looked at home on a woman twice her age, but maybe that was Aubry’s prejudice showing. She didn’t do tasteful and she didn’t do…pretty much anything to do with events like this.
Just another way that I don’t fit into this world.
Quinn didn’t have that problem. He wore his tux like he was born to do it…probably because he was.
Jenny’s eyes went wide when she caught sight of Aubry, and she couldn’t exactly blame the woman. Wearing a black cut-out dress that showed off her tattoos to perfection had sounded like a great plan when she was packing and planning to aggravate Quinn as much as possible, but actually walking into a room of pastels in it was something else altogether. What the hell was I thinking?
Quinn’s sister approached, her smile firmly back in place by the time she was in front of them. “Right on time!”
“I’m making a habit of it this weekend,” Quinn said. “Consider it a one-time thing.”
“Yes, well. I appreciate it. And I’m sorry again about this morning. I didn’t know they were going to ambush you like that. It’s wonderful to see you again, Aubry.” Someone called her name and Jenny’s smile faltered before she made a visible effort to reclaim it. “I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later, though.”
“Can’t wait.” The words didn’t come out nearly as chipper as Aubry meant them to.
This whole event was just a reminder of how different she and Quinn were. It didn’t matter how often he claimed they weren’t his people, she knew damn well that a person never truly escaped their past. She might be successful in her own right, but she’d always be that freak from a trailer park in the back of her mind. Being here only brought that feeling home. Again and again and again.
