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“I will,” I agreed, trying not to let my doubts show on my face.
Behind Quinn, the sun was low over my childhood home, about to slip behind the roof my parents had replaced two years ago. Above the roof, the uppermost branches of the trees spread out, thick and leafy green even as we approached the end of September. Quinn’s face was turned up, her skin glowing against her dark t-shirt and fiery hair. She looked the same as she had when she was eighteen until you looked at her eyes.Those were too old. I felt a flash of guilt that persisted even as I recognized it made no fucking sense. Quinn wasn’t a kid in the neighborhood anymore. A bully hadn’t gotten to her when I wasn’t paying attention. Most likely, I couldn’t have stopped what had happened even if I had checked in with her.
But that didn’t change the fact that I felt a sense of responsibility for her as strong as I felt for Renee and the other kids I’d watched grow up here. And Ihadknown Jason Cain’s reputation.
“Right,” I said again, and this time my voice sounded cold and incisive, even to my own ears. “I’m going to get this fucker, Quinn. You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Quinn smiled faintly, her arms still crossed tight across her body. “I think you’re the only person who could say something like that without making me laugh.”
“Why?”
“Because I think you’re the only person who means it.” Finally, like a quartz being rotated in the sunlight, her eyes warmed, amber piercing through the cold steel. “You’ve always looked out for us, haven’t you?”
“I tried,” I said self-deprecatingly, remembering how difficult they’d made it.
“And we gave you hell for it, didn’t we?”
A wry smile bent my lips. “You tried.”
“I know we succeeded.” She took another step forward, so close I could have put my hands on her shoulders without fully extending my arms. “Thank you, Callum. For everything.”
My mouth went dry. “You’re welcome, Quinn.”
For a long moment, we stared at each other, tension and expectation shimmering in the narrow space between us. I got the sense she was considering something. Then she gave me a crooked smile and turned around.
I watched her until the door shut behind her, wondering what the hell had just happened.
Wondering why I didn’t want to turn away just yet.
CHAPTER 5
QUINN
“What the hell was that?” Renee asked when I closed the door behind me. She was standing at the entrance to the living room, the dinner plates stacked in her hand. Through the picture window, she’d had a full view of everything.
My heart was still beating fast, and I knew Renee had caught me red handed, but I still pretended innocence. “What was what?”
“Don’t even try it.” Renee shifted the plates to one arm so she could point at me accusingly with her free hand. “Don’t forget, I’ve seen that move before, QC.”
“Oh my God, there’s nomove, Renee.” I glanced out the window myself. Callum was just now circling his car and getting in the driver’s side. That meant he’d watched me walk away. The ghost of something that might have been pleasure tickled in my chest.
Renee stomped on it. “Oh you’d better believe there’s a move. There’s a whole series of them. You think I didn’t grow up watching the Quinn Collins chess game of love?”
“Oflove?” I pulled my gaze away from the tall, handsome, chivalrous man outside and nearly choked on the word. “Please. I haven’t eaten enough to throw up.”
“Bobby Randolph.” Renee brandished the name like a lawyer showing the jury inarguable evidence. “He’d started dating Janine Marshall, but you decided you wanted him. I was standing next to Janine when you walked up to him in the parking lot, did that little head tilt, stood just alittletoo close, and then bam. Next thing we knew, Janine didn’t have a date for the Homecoming dance. Do you know how awkward that was for me? I felt like such an asshole.”
A laugh was building up deep inside, coming from my belly instead of my lungs. It surprised me because I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. Normally, my stomach felt too tight and constricted. Tensed against whatever was coming next. I knew this wasn’t the time to let it float up like helium bubbles, that Renee was serious, but I couldn’t help it.
“Carter Terry,” Renee went on, ignoring my laughter. “With the blue truck.”
I rolled my eyes, remembering Carter Terry too well.
“Austin Cameron.”
“Remind me.”
“He had the black Altima.”
