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“No, that’s just them being too good looking and talented and being told it on a daily basis while everyone around them kisses their asses.”
“Heard that!” Jamie yelled.
Quinn wraps his arm around me. “Hey, you still look kind of pale, why don’t we call it a night?”
“Sending me home on my birthday?” I tease.
He squeezes my shoulder and leads me toward the outdoor deck. “Hell no, you’re spending the night, but you do seem tired, we can just… cuddle.”
I smack him in the chest. “Just cuddle? With a perfectly healthy good-looking guy on my birthday?”
He smiles down at me and grabs my hand, helping me up the stairs. “It doesn’t always have to be about sex, Chloe, sometimes, a guy just wants to hold the girl he likes.
I fall asleep that night in his arms. Safe. Protected. Wanted.
Happy.
Chapter Fifteen
Quinn
Okay listen, I’m not exactly proud of my man-whorish background but at least I can be proud that the gorgeous girl laying across my chest, burning it up, ended up truly just sleeping in my arms.
See? I can show some damn restraint!
Chloe’s phone starts to buzz where I left it on the nightstand, I don’t want to wake her up since she wasn’t feeling so good last night, plus she looks so peaceful. I slowly pry her away and grab the phone in a hushed voice, answering, “Hey, Sophie.”
She doesn’t say anything at first, then blurts out, “What? Did you kidnap my sister on her birthday or something?”
I turn and look at her. “Yeah, something like that, happy birthday, by the way.”
“Thanks.” She doesn’t sound thankful, instead she sounds downright hostile, then again I haven’t had coffee yet and I’m not a huge fan of getting interrupted when I have a gorgeous girl in my arms, though she does seem to feel really hot to the touch and the fact that she hasn’t even stirred is weird.
“Anyway…” Sophie’s voice is a bit lighter. “My parents were trying to get ahold of her and wanted to know how she was doing, but she wasn’t answering her phone.”
I don’t check the missed calls but frown down at her sleeping form. I love her in my white t-shirt more than I should admit. “Well, she did say she was tired yesterday, and she does feel a bit warm—“
“—Shit, I knew it! See, this is why you don’t—“ She cuts herself off. “Whatever, give me your address and I’ll be there in a few minutes to grab her.”
“What if I don’t want you to grab her?”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re an idiot?”
“Often, yes, anyone ever tell you that you’re rude?”
She cackles out a laugh that kind of makes me want to both love and hate her at the same time. Something is off with her, but I go with it because it’s Chloe’s twin. “All the time, yes.”
I take a hesitant deep breath. “Maybe we should work on our faults, I’ll go first, yes apparently I am being an idiot, but only because you’re too rude to tell me why you’re frustrated.”
“That makes me second I guess,” She sighs long and hard into the phone, I can feel her pain and I suddenly feel sorry for her the way I’ve felt sorry for myself over the shit year I’ve had. And it has been a complete bomb of shit, like the kind of shit that makes you second guess all life choices. “It’s not for me to tell, but if she’s warm or hot to the touch, she has a fever and she’s gotten them a lot since she was like thirteen, so I need to come get her.”
I reach out with my palm and touch her forehead again… she seems to be getting hotter. I touch my own forehead and go back and forth like a psycho for at least ten seconds. She’s not okay. And she needs more rest and hydration, obviously. “She’ll be okay though, right?”
Sophie says something, but I can’t decipher what it is, then her voice is clear as day. “Get a damp compress, make sure she drinks some water, and I’ll be there in a few minutes oh and let me write down your address, ugh I’m so tired of this shit all the time.”
“Phone calls with would be suitors?” I joke, trying to lighten the moment. Clearly it fails because her immediate response isn’t laughter. But a curse.
“Hell no, having to take care of someone who’s so damn sick that it’s the only thing anyone ever sees.”
