AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Renee made a big show of looking around. “And you don’t have a charger anywhere in this entire house?”
“I didn’t want to deal with Jason,” I said quietly, knowing she’d pick out the thinly veiled truth I’d omitted.
“Oh yeah? What about my brother? Are you willing to deal with him?”
I closed my eyes, misery pounding in my temples as excruciating as any migraine. “No.” I turned and walked into the living room. I wanted to put space between me and my best friend, but I should have known that was impossible. She followed right behind, her disapproval so overwhelming it was like a third person in the room.
“I told you, QC. Itoldyou not to fuck with him. And what did you do?”
“I didn’t,” I defended myself, sinking onto the couch and pulling the blanket over my lap.
Renee dropped down onto the other cushion before I could stretch my legs out. I tried to push my feet into her anyway, butshe pushed them off. “Don’t even think about it. I’m too mad at you to have your freezing ass feet near me. Just ten minutes before you ran off, I told you to be sure. And you were like, ‘oh yeah, I’m sure!’And then you fucking disappeared.”
“Renee, I didn’t leave because I wanted to,” I said, pulling my legs in tight. Renee and I had gotten into so many fights over the years, but this one felt different. She was justifiably furious with me. I’d hurt her big brother. I was still hurting him right now. Every moment that went by without reaching out to him was another splinter under the fingernails of our friendship.
“Then why did you?”
I massaged my temples and stared past her at the diamond chip bright surface of the pool just beyond my back patio, trying to remember every cognitive step that had led me here. They all blurred together. I hadn’t been driven by cognition but emotion. “At first I wanted to get Jason away from Callum and Noah,” I said slowly. “But then… Callum…” I shook my head, unable to put it into words. “He wasn’t looking at me, Renee. He was looking at Emma when he tried to stop me.”
Renee opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off. “No, Renee. I know when he can see me and when he can’t. Hecouldn’tthen.”
She sucked her cheeks in so her lips pursed out and regarded me like I was a tricky piece of music she was trying to work out. “Do you blame him?” she asked finally. “Emma died in a car accident in the rain.”
“I know. I remember. I–” I let my head flop backward and closed my eyes. “No,” I said finally, still staring at the darkness of my eyelids. “I don’t blame him. But I can’t live my life according toher death. He told meno, like I was a child. And I can’t be with someone who tries to control me. Not after Jason.”
Someone else might have run the line about how he was trying to protect me, but not Renee. She was as fiercely independent as I was. We were both quiet for a long time, considering it. She didn’t want to understand, but she did. “Hey,” she said slowly, “speaking of Jason…”
My eyes shot open and my head snapped up. “What about him?” Had I miscalculated, thinking I had lured him away? Had he hung around Belmont and Waterford, harassing my friends and family?
“He might be dead.”
CHAPTER 30
CALLUM
Icalled the hospital that night, but no one could tell me anything about Jason’s condition. The next morning, I asked my parents to stay with Noah, and I went to the hospital. I didn’t know why, but something compelled me to do it. Maybe I was just distracting myself from the memory of Quinn’s eyes filling with inexplicable betrayal as she jerked her arm out of mine and ran into the storm.
I was shocked to see an older woman sitting by his bed. She had white hair and his same dark eyes, minus their malice. She looked as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She sized me up in a quick assessing glance and said confidently, “You’re not in the industry.”
“No, I’m a–” I considered my response. Telling people you were a lawyer was the quickest way to get yourself shown the door. Claiming to be a friend was a lie so big I didn’t think I could choke it down. “I’m the one who pulled him out of the car,” I said finally.
“Oh, well, I thank you for that. I’m his grandmother.”
I nodded toward the chair opposite the end of Jason’s bed. “Do you mind?”
She waved her thin, gnarled white hand toward it. “Be his guest. I don’t imagine he’ll get many other visitors.”
So his grandmother knew what he was like. I settled myself in the chair, still half wondering what the hell I was doing here. She looked at me like she had the same question. When I didn’t offer an explanation, she finally asked, “So are you just a good Samaritan, Mister…”
“Callum. And no.” Uncomfortably, I scuffed my hands down the sides of my unshaven face, the stubble prickling my palms. It had been a long time since I broke my rigid routine of shower and shave before I left the house. Maybe I should have gone ahead and done it. It would have given me more time to figure out that coming to the hospital was a stupid idea. How the hell was I supposed to tell this woman that her grandson had been in the middle of terrorizing the woman I loved when he was in his accident? The thought of Quinn shot something sharp and uncomfortable deep between my ribs. I lurched away from it. Grabbed at an easy lie. “I was renegotiating a contract with Jason. He had just come by to…ah…discuss terms.”
Her gaze sharpened. “You’re not a very good liar for a lawyer.”
I smiled wearily. “Good lawyers don’t lie.”
She harrumphed. “Then I’ve never met a good one.”
I took a closer look at her. Outwardly, she was all understated elegance, but I sensed that there were chipped shoulders underneath her designer sweater. She reminded me of how I felt sometimes–like the veneer of wealth wore thin in places and you could see my humble beginnings. I used to hate those places onme, but now, I found I didn’t care. Quinn was from my humble beginnings, and she wore it proudly. I wanted to be more like her.
