Page 234 of Wait for Him

“Stacy. Hey.”

Her face breaks into a smile as she releases the man's hand and meets me halfway. I don't let go of Rose. I don't even think about it. I just shift enough to give Stacy a quick one-armed hug.

“It’s good to see you.”

“You too.”

When I pull back, my fingers tighten around Rose's automatically.

“This is my fiancée, Rose.” I glance down at her. Mine. Fuck yeah. “Rose, this is an old friend of mine, Stacy.”

Stacy's eyebrows lift slightly as she looks at Rose. Then at our hands and back at me with a huge smile.

What was that?

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she says to Rose.

Finally?

Rose doesn't seem to catch it. Or she does and is better behaved than I am.

“You too.”

“This is my fiancé, Quinn.” Stacy reaches back for him, and he steps closer. “He's the man who helped me out of that dark period I told you about.”

She gestures toward me.

I did?

I keep my face neutral because clearly there was a conversation about me at some point, and I would very much like access to the meeting minutes.

“Ah,” Quinn says. His whole face changes.

Well, that's concerning.

He extends his hand toward me. “Then I have you to thank for bringing this beautiful woman into my life.”

Okay. Definitely more significance.

I shake his hand while my brain starts flipping backward through several months of memories, trying to locate the period in which I was unknowingly doing life-changing work without being informed.

“I'm not sure how much credit I can take there.”

“A lot,” Stacy says quietly.

I look at her. She's smiling, but there's more behind it now. Gratitude, maybe. Affection. Whatever it is, I'm beginning to suspect this conversation is about to teach me something about my own life.

When I look down at Rose, I'm expecting... something.

Unease, maybe. Confusion. A question in her eyes. Even the slightest tightening around her mouth.

I told her about Stacy weeks ago when we were filling in the year we spent apart and everything that happened while we weren't in each other's lives. I didn't hide what Stacy and I were to each other, or what we weren't. Rose knows there was never some great love story there.

Except Rose doesn't look bothered at all.

She's tucked against my side now with both hands wrapped around my arm, staring up at me with this almost awed expression.

Which is somehow more concerning.