My ribs were taped up so tight it was hard to breathe, and my head was pounding, but I didn’t bother mentioning that, or the other assortment of cuts and bruises I had all over my body – I didn’t deserve his sympathy.
“No internal bleeding. So, I’m good to get out of here.”
“What happened? Do you know who did this?” He sat down in the green-eyed girl’s chair.
“You sound like the cop I had in here earlier,” I joked, trying to down play the situation. “It was just bad luck.”
“Would you recognize the guys?”
I shook my head no. “I don’t remember too much,” I lied.
He nodded, and his eyes fell on the book next to the bed. “Since when do you read girly books?” He chuckled as he reached for it.
She’d been reading it to me. It wasn’t my book, and I was hoping I’d be able to return it to her.
“It’s not mine,” I muttered as he knocked it to the ground. He turned to pick it up and my eye caught sight of movement in the doorway.
Holy shit... it’s her.
I was sure my imagination had made her out to be more than she was, if it wasn’t for the fact that the nurses had seen her, I would have been starting to think that my drug-induced mind had dreamed her up.
I didn’t think it was possible for someone to have such green eyes, such full lips and such a banging body... but there she was. Every glorious inch of her, right here in my hospital room, for the second time today.
“You came back,” I blurted out.
“Huh?” Colt asked as he swung his body back into the chair, book in hand.
I ignored him. I was talking to her.
She leaned against the door frame with an anxious expression on her face, as though she was worried about what might happen next.
I wanted to ask her a million questions, ‘who are you?’, ‘why did you come here?’, ‘how do I make you stay?’ but instead I just stared at her.
Her gaze flitted nervously between Colt and me, before landing firmly on me.
I didn’t know what to make of her. She was a stranger to me – I knew that without a shadow of a doubt – a guy didn’t forget meeting a woman that looked the way she did. But yet she felt familiar to me, almost as though the most important person in my world had just walked through the door. My whole body tingled. She was having an effect on me, even if my mind didn’t know her.
“Oh, hey,” Colt said. “Harrison, Quinn. Quinn, Harrison.” He waved his hand between the two of us.
Neither of us moved. We just stared at one another. Her eyes were begging for understanding.
“You’re Quinn?” I managed to ask, disbelief coloring my voice.
She’s Quinn?
She nodded and took a step towards the bed.
“Hi, Harrison,” she replied softly. Hearing her voice not only gave me goosebumps, but a rush of fuzzy, unclear memories.
Her voice... reading to me.
How many times had she come?
She looked down at her hands before meeting my eyes once more. The space between us crackled. I wanted so badly to reach for her and run my hands through her long brown hair. I’d never wanted to get hold of a woman more than I did right now. I smiled at her and the shine in her eyes showed me she liked what she saw.
I certainly liked what I saw. Her tight black jeans were doing a mighty fine job of showing off her long, slim legs.
“Do you two know each other?” Colt’s voice snapped me back to the reality of the situation.
She’s Colt’s fucking girlfriend.
I met his confused expression and felt inexplicably guilty.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I looked back at her for answers. “Do I know you?”
She closed her eyes momentarily, like she was exhausted. “I came and read to him a couple of times,” she explained, talking to Colt now.
“Why?” he asked quickly. I could tell he wasn’t happy about this revelation.
She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied quietly, her eyes darting to me and then back to Colt.
Fuck, she is something else.
She was gorgeous. The kind of stunning a guy never really saw close up like this.
How the fuck did Colt pull a girl like that?
She didn’t seem to be able to keep her eyes off me. Normally I would have felt pretty smug about that. But with her boyfriend – my brother, sitting next to me, tension radiating off him, it wasn’t so easy.
“I’ve got your book,” I stated lamely, gesturing towards Colt’s hand.
“It’s not mine. I found it there.” She pointed at the table next to my bed. She took a step back and bumped into a chair. “I’m... I... I’ll just wait... in the car,” she stuttered, backing from the room.
“Quinn,” I called. I didn’t know what I would have said, even if she had stopped, I just knew I didn’t want to see her walk out that door. But it was too late, she was gone... again.
I stared at the empty doorway until Colt cleared his throat.
Shit.
I sighed and looked at him, waiting for his response.
He was pissed.
“You want to tell me what the fuck that was all about?”
If only I knew...
6. Colt
She looked at him the way a person looks at something truly majestic. It’s like he was the eighth fucking wonder of the world or something. He wasn’t much better with the way he was looking at her, but in his defense, she was a woman worth staring at.
I could have left that room forming a conga line with every nurse on the ward, and I doubt they would have even noticed.
It was like that moment in a chick flick, where the girl and the guy look into each other’s eyes and the whole world just falls away... it’s just the two of them and it’s all magical and shit.
That’s what that was. That was what Quinn wanted... that moment, was the ‘more’ she was looking for.
Now I just had to figure out a way to give her whatever the hell it was that he was giving.
7. Harrison
“What the hell just happened?” I asked him, totally bewildered by the last few minutes.
“I just fucking asked you that,” Colt snapped back at me.
I just stared at him in disbelief. I had no idea what was going on. My mouth opened and shut a few times, but no words found their way out.
She’s Quinn?
“How the hell do you know Quinn? And why has she been visiting you?”
The possessive edge to his voice was nearly my undoing. I had no right to, but I felt like I had some type of claim over this woman... like I needed to protect her.
I could feel my muscles tensing as I stared at my brother and I begged myself to calm down, getting mad at him was pointless, he looked as confused as I felt.
I took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eyes. “I don’t know her.”
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well I don’t think I know her... she was here today. I know that much.”
“She was here today?” His eyes narrowed at me.
“Yeah, she was here when I woke up.”
“She was here when you woke up?” he asked, exasperated.
“Stop repeating everything I say.” I rubbed my temples. “It’s not helping.” This shit was really starting to hurt my head.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered. He huffed out a deep breath and shook his head. “Well what happened when you woke up?”
I let my mind drift back to that moment.
“I opened my eyes, and she was sitting in the chair you’re in.” I nodded in his direction. “She was reading that book to me.”
I didn’t tell him that I’d lain still for a few minutes, totally unmoving, unwilling to do anything that might cause her to stop speaking.
“I had no idea who she was.”
I didn’t tell him that even though I didn’t know her, I’d recognized her immediately – she was the beautiful woman that had tak
en over my dreams. I hadn’t even made sense of that myself yet, and I didn’t feel like trying to explain it to him.
“Or how long she’d been there.”
I didn’t tell him about how I’d reached out for her and knocked the book from her hands. Or how I’d caught a flash of the smile that played on her lips as she enjoyed the story, right before shock took its place.
“She rambled on, called the nurses in and left,” I told him, trying to lift myself up and off the bed as I did.
Pain shot through my ribs and I flinched.
Motherfucker.
“You don’t know why she was here?” he asked as he reached out to grip my bicep and help me up.
“I’ve got no idea. But it was like I recognized her. I can’t explain that. I think the answers you want are going to have to come from your girlfriend.”
He huffed out another breath. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
My heart raced.
Play it cool, Hunt... play it cool.
“She’s not?”
“Nah. Never quite sealed the deal.” He shrugged. “We’ve been seeing each other a long time though,” he added quickly.
“Maybe you should ask her to be?” I suggested, hoping like hell that he wouldn’t.
He shook his head and laughed humorlessly. “She’d say no. She ended what we did have going on the way over here.”
Thank fuck.
I was a bastard. My youngest brother was here, apparently heartbroken, and I was rejoicing internally.
Yip... total bastard.
“I’m not giving up on her yet, though. She’ll come around,” he told me firmly, as though he could read my thoughts.
Shit.
8. Quinn
Most awkward drive in the history of the universe.
I slinked out of the hospital room with my tail between my legs.
I knew I had no one to blame but myself. I’d created this mess, and now I was going to have to clean it up.
I lurked around outside the door and listened to their whole conversation like a proper psycho. I only bailed when a nurse started heading in the direction of Harrison’s room. I’d heard a fair whack of their chat, and I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy feat to explain this to Colt.
“I’m not giving up on her. She’ll come around.”
Jesus.
He was delusional. I wasn’t coming around anywhere that he was concerned.
Had he not felt that connection in there? I was drawn to his brother in a way that made absolutely no sense; surely he wasn’t oblivious to that? The worst part of it was I was beginning not to care anymore. I was only getting one shot at life, and I wasn’t going to waste it sitting around spoon feeding Colton Hunt.
We’d been driving for fifteen minutes in total silence. The tension in the car was beyond uncomfortable, but what the fuck was I supposed to do?
The first song that had come on the radio was ‘Treat You Better’ by Shawn Mendes and I’d knocked over a water bottle and dropped my sunglasses trying to turn it off as fast as I could.
There was no way in hell I was risking turning it back on and having another song like that play.
I stole a glance at Colt out the corner of my eye. He was in the front seat, staring directly out the window, his fists were rigid and tight, sitting on his thighs. He hadn’t even looked at me since he came out of the hospital, pushing Harrison in a wheelchair, and it made me want to just curl up and disappear.
I peeked at the rearvision mirror and glanced at Harrison. He’d changed out of his hospital gown and was wearing tan chinos and a fitted black t-shirt that looked way too good on him. My gaze flicked to his face and our eyes locked; he was watching me through the mirror. Tingles raced down the back of my neck.
His eyes were lighter today, more like the color of caramel I’d seen in the picture online. He winked at me and I totally lost my focus, accidently stepping hard on the brake.
The car lurched to a stop, slamming me against my seatbelt.
Fuck!
“Jesus, Quinn.” Colt reached out to brace himself on the dashboard.
“Sorry,” I muttered, easing my foot back on the accelerator.
Harrison groaned from the back seat.
“Are you okay?” I asked quickly, looking in the mirror again.
“I think...” He panted. “That... this isn’t the... gentle activity the... doc recommended.” He groaned.
Poor bastard had broken ribs and here I was, driving my car like I’d stolen it.
Fuck.
“I’m sorry,” I squeaked. “I thought I saw something.”
“Yeah, you saw something alright,” Colt muttered quietly to himself.
I drove the rest of the way to Colt’s house, biting my tongue, and keeping my eyes fixed directly on the road.
“If it doesn’t open, it’s not your door.”
- Author unknown
9. Colt
“You’re staying with me,” I told him firmly.
We’d pulled up to my apartment, and Harrison had instantly started whining about going back to his place.
“I heard what that nurse said, and you’ll be here for at least a couple of weeks.”
He muttered something incoherent, but put up no further argument.
My motives for keeping him here weren’t exactly noble. Sure, he needed a hand, but he was a big boy, he could pay for a nurse if he really needed one. I wanted him here to keep an eye on him... and on her.
“I’ll head off then,” Quinn said.
I looked directly at her for the first time. “Can we talk first?” I asked her quietly, trying not to let Harrison hear.
She closed her eyes momentarily. “Ah, yeah... sure.”
“I’ll just help him up.”
She nodded.
I hopped out of her car and swung open the back door for Harrison. “Alright, up you go.”
I slipped my arm under his shoulder and hoisted him out of the car.
His hand caught the door as I went to push it shut.
He leaned back inside the car. “Thank you, Quinn.”
I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head.
“Oh, ah... you’re welcome, Harrison.”
There was no ‘I hope you feel better soon’ or ‘It was nice to meet you’ or ‘Good luck with everything’, like you normally would say when you were dismissing a stranger that you knew you’d never see again. There were just all these unsaid words, husky voices, and promises of more to come.
Fuck.
***
“Do you want to come and sit out here with me?” I asked as I ducked my head into her car.
I’d dropped Harrison and his bag on the couch and come straight back down to see Quinn. I was pretty pissed off, and really confused about this whole mess, but I knew one thing for sure, I didn’t want her to drive away from here thinking that I hadn’t wanted to fight for her.
Even if it is a losing battle.
“Sure.” She undid her belt and slipped out of the car.
I sat down on the bench seat out the front of my apartment building and patted the spot next to me.
She sat, further down than I intended, but she was here and willing to talk. That was what mattered.
Now that I had her alone, I didn’t even know where to begin. I had so many questions, I couldn’t figure out which was the most important.
The silence stretched.
“I know what’s going on in your head,” she told me softly.
“You do, huh?” I huffed out a breath.
“Yeah, I do. You’re confused as hell.”
I chuckled darkly. “That doesn’t quite cover it.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Colt.” She sighed. “I’m drawn to him.”
I could feel all my frustrations coming to a head. “Why? Why him? You don’t even know him.” I knew I sounded desperate, pathetic even, but I was past caring.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I can’t give you any answers
because I don’t understand it myself... it’s not rational.”
I wanted to be angry with her, but she was as lost with all this as I was, I looked over at her and I could see how torn up she was. Quinn was a woman that was always in control of her life, and right now she looked like a lost little girl on the verge of tears.
“I really care about you, Quinn,” I told her genuinely.
“I know you do.” She gave me a small smile. “And I care about you too, I don’t want to see you hurt, and that’s probably why I’ve let this go on the way it has.”
I sighed.
“And I know you think that we have a future... but the reality is that we don’t. It’s just not in the cards for us. And I know it’s a cliché, but it’s not you.”
“It’s not you, it’s me? Really?” I muttered.
“No,” she insisted. “It’s not me either.”
“Huh?”
“It’s just us, together. We’re not right and that’s just the way it is. I know that you’ll find the right girl for you one day, and you’ll look back on this and laugh at yourself for getting it so wrong.”
I wanted to believe her, but it didn’t feel wrong. Letting her leave – that’s what felt wrong.
“I could make you happy, Quinn.”
She sighed and rubbed her temples like she had a headache. “This is going to sound harsh, but you couldn’t, not like—”
“Not like him?” I interrupted, pointing up in the direction of my apartment.
She glanced up at the building and her eyes fixed on something. I didn’t even turn; I knew he’d be watching us.
She pulled her eyes from the building and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I just know that there’s more than this, and that we both deserve to find out what that is.”
She stood up suddenly. “I’ll give you guys some space, okay? He’s your brother and I’m not going to get in the middle of anything. I’ve caused enough trouble.” She was wringing her hands together nervously.
She took a few steps towards her car and stopped, looking back at me. “For what it’s worth, Colt, I am sorry, I never meant for this to happen. You’re an amazing guy... but just for someone else.”
Love like Yours Series Box Set: Books 1 - 4 Page 49
