AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before I can figure it out, I reach the shop and gape at the “closed” sign hanging in the window.
“What the heck are we closed for?” I ask, walking in half expecting to find the remains of a fire or burglary. Instead it’s just Gary and Ross bellied up to the counter, one on the stool hunched over a pile of crumbs, while the other leans against the register, licking what looks like powdered sugar off his fingers.
I don’t have time for this. I need to figure out what I’m going to say to Quinn. I need tofindhim.
Gary brushes his hands off on his jeans.
“We’ll open back up in a minute. But first, who’s this guy you’re dating again?”
A prickle of unease runs up the back of my neck, and my arms cross defensively.
I’m going to tell them, but not until I’ve talked to Quinn.
“Just some guy. Why, what do you care?”
“A banker, right?” Ross chimes in, his mouth pulled down into an exaggerated frown.
Definitely something going on here. “What are you getting at?”
My relationship with my brothers is complicated. They’re protective and sometimes knob-heads, but for the most part I’ve been the boss of them since I was about ten. But right now, the way they’re looking at me, you’d think the police had just dragged me home at three a.m.
“Nothing much. Just that I’m pretty sure he stopped by today.”
Oh God. He was here?
“What do you mean?” I ask, my hands starting to shake. Did they say something to him? Does he already know?
“I mean that fucking tool from winter break was here looking for you. Talking about how you guys werefriends. Didn’t even recognize us until numbnuts here came out of the backroom and he saw us together.”
“For the last time, how was I supposed to know he was here?” Gary grumbles.
Wait— “What do you mean he recognized you?You?”
Quinn has been staring into my eyes for the better part of two months, watching me from across the room from before that. And aside from a sense of familiarity he can’t explain, there is zero recognition. Butthese guyshe knows?
Gary looks a little too smug for my taste. “Guess we made a lasting impression back across the border,” he says, tapping the bridge of his nose.
But it’s not until Ross groans, telling him to shut up, that it clicks. “Oh… my… God. You’re the guys who beat him up?”
Gary grins, flashing that toothless gap. “You’re welcome.”
No.
Quinn was here. Probably while I was at his place. And now… he knows. He has to.
He’s got to be going out of his mind. “Did he say anything to you?”
The guys shake their heads. Gary waves a hand over the remains of some pastry scattered over my service counter. “Just shoved a plate at Ross here and left.”
Ross slaps a bouquet of stems against my chest, and at my questioning look, nods to the trash overflowing with blooms. “And these too.”
Shaking my head, I start toward the back. I need to find Quinn. Explain. If he’ll even let me.
Please, don’t let me have waited too long.
Taking the stairs up two at a time, I stare at the plate in my hand. It’s from his kitchen. Whatever he brought me… hemadefor me.
“Guess you liked the lemon bars, but the flowers not so much, huh?”
