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Now she did laugh. “Good thing, right?”
“Yeah.”
I shifted to her other leg, stopping first to splash more warm oil into my palm. Her muscles were like putty beneath my thumbs and fingers. At this moment in time, she’d let me do anything that I wanted.
“My parents worked opposite schedules, so they barely ever saw each other,” Quinn went on. “Hell, I probably saw more of the old man than she did. We’d cook together at one, two, three o’clock in the morning, making all sorts of crazy things.”
“Sounds nice,” I smiled.
“It was,” Quinn replied. “I learned just about everything I know from my father. My best memories are of us throwing flour at each other in the wee hours of the morning, then laughing and shushing each other as we cleaned up all the mess before mom could see.”
“Even when she did see, she only frowned and went to work. And my father went to bed. Which left me to be practically raised by my five older siblings, none of which were too amused at our middle-of-the-night antics.”
“Is that why they ultimately got divorced?”
She paused with eyes still closed, her expression slightly more troubled now. Eventually she nodded. “Yes.”
Shit, I hadn’t wanted to bring her down. I redoubled my massage efforts.
“In the end they were practically strangers,” Quinn murmured. “Their jobs pretty much consumed every ounce of time that could’ve been spent on enjoying each other, or building their relationship.”
I knew much of this from her dossier, but it was nice to hear her filling in the blanks. In choosing Quinn as our surrogate we’d delved as deep as possible into her history, to the point where we were borderline abusing our contacts at the NSA. It was crazy, the amount of information you could find on people. With the right resources, of course.
“I know what it’s like, dedicating your life to a job,” I commiserated. “But I couldn’t imagine doing it while in a relationship.”
“Or with children,” Quinn added somberly. “I vowed never to put my own kids through something like that. It’s… it’s too much.”
I squeezed harder, sending her back into blissful oblivion. I didn’t realize how much she needed this.
“My parents had me later on in life,” I said, “so I know about older siblings. I hadsixof them though, so I beat you.”
“Six?”Quinn gasped, almost sitting up. “Your parents hadsevenkids?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“And you were the youngest? Like me?”
“I was.”
I thought back to the whirlwind shitstorm of chaos that I called my childhood. As crazy as it was, I couldn’t suppress a grin.
“My siblings didn’t raise me though, like yours did. More like they hazed me. My brothers were merciless, and my sisters offered little in the way of help. They were more likely to hand me over than actually help me, although Jennifer did shield me from a few of the more savage beatings.”
“And were your parents gone all the time?” she asked. “Like mine?”
“Nah,” I shrugged. “They were around. But when you’re the seventh kid, your mom and dad are pretty much done parenting. They were a lot older by then. Always tired. I was left to pretty much do whatever I wanted, so I didn’t stick around the house very much.”
“It made you independent though, I’ll bet.”
My smile widened. “Hell yeah.”
Just then Joshua walked in and gave me the nod I’d been waiting for all night. It meant that Cole had not only landed, but he’d also successfully made contact. Our friend was half a continent away, working on something that might give us an edge. He had connections we didn’t. Favors to cash in.
Quinn still didn’t know where he was, but she knew enough not to ask for a second time. We were willing to share just about everything, including her.Especiallyher…
But there were some things she’d be safer not knowing.
“All good?” I asked him casually.
