AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m a failure,Lori offered, but only to herself.Sexually, financially, socially, educationally, professionally. A failure.But that was something she’d never said aloud, even to herself, and something she’d never, ever say to another human being.
“Why don’t you come over for dinner,” Ben offered, his cop voice falling completely away. “Molly’s making lasagna. And it’s store-bought, so you don’t have to be scared.”
She laughed at that, but even to her ears it sounded a little shaky. Ben pulled her into a hug, his strong arms radiating warmth and security.
“Lori, please tell me what’s going on.”
Lori clutched the neck of the wine bottle tighter. “It’s girl stuff, Ben. And it’s not serious. It’s just depressing.”
“Early onset menopause?”
“Shutup.” She laughed, and shoved him hard with her free hand.
He gave her one of his rare smiles. “My mom’s been having weird conversations with Molly recently. I can’t help but absorb it.”
“It’s nothing, honestly. Just boys. Now go.”
His smile snapped to a frown. “What boys?”
“Go!”
“All right, but I’ll be watching theTribunefor clues.”
“Great.” Shoving at his shoulder, she turned him, then placed her hand flat against his back and started pushing him toward the door. Or more likely he allowed himself to be pushed. Regardless, she got him out of the living room and he turned the knob and opened the door. She pushed him right out onto the stoop and down the two steps to the narrow sidewalk.
The only thing that alerted her to a change was the sudden unyielding hardness of the muscles beneath her fingers. Her pushing ceased to work. “Ben?” she huffed, giving him one last little shove that didn’t even shift his shoulders.
Shrugging, she spun on the ball of her bare foot to flounce back inside. That was when she saw Quinn. Standing in the middle of the front lot. Glaring.
“What do you think you’re looking at?” she shouted.
Quinn didn’t hesitate. “A woman in her underwear. Outside in the open. With a man who’s supposed to be my sister’s boyfriend.”
Air hissed out between Ben’s teeth, and Lori shuffled quickly through her memories, trying to remember if the two men had ever exchanged blows before. They’d been best friends for years, and neither was inclined to violence, but there was a first time for everything. Lori touched Ben’s arm, just in case.
“Fuck off, Quinn,” he growled, but Lori didn’t hear any real heat behind the words. He looked over his shoulder at Lori, then to Quinn, with the same alertness he’d shown the other day when he’d found them together, but he didn’t say anything else before getting in his official police vehicle and driving away.
Quinn didn’t say anything else, either; he just stared at her, his vicious frown caught somewhere between bafflement and frustrated anger.
Lori did her best to convey only one emotion with her glare. Complete and utter pissiness. She crossed her arms—ignoring the pain when the bottle banged against her elbow—and stared him down.
* * *
AN OPAQUE CLOUDof debris had settled over Quinn’s mind, pelting his thoughts with grit and tiny bits of shrapnel. It was hard to think clearly through the mess of confusion.
All he could process was that Lori was in her underwear.
Outside.
Outside, yes, but looking just the way he’d fantasized she’d look in her underwear.
Except in his fantasy she hadn’t been with his best friend.
And she hadn’t been angry. Or drunk enough to drink straight from a wine bottle.
As if she’d read his scrambled thoughts, Lori arched an impatient eyebrow and raised the bottle to her lips for a hearty gulp. Fury flashed through him, uncalled for and totally real.
“What the hell is going on here?” he barked.
