“Ellie? Is that you?” An elderly woman wearing a floral dress walked out of the main house toward me, her jewel encrusted flip-flops clapping on the cement. “I’ve been calling you to come inside. It’s time for dinner.”
I hardly recognized Quinn’s grandmother, Louise. I hadn’t seen her in person for years. Actually, it was the summer before Griffin and Quinn had graduated high school. She was so vibrant and colorful many years ago. I remember her baking all these treats for us while we swam at Griffin’s pool. Brownies, chocolate chip cookies, lemon tarts, and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing.
My favorites were the homemade mini pizzas she would bake by the dozens and bring out to us while we were swimming. His Nanna was so sweet with a sunny deposition. Now it was like the years had crept up on her and stolen away everything joyful about her. She looked like she’d shrunk a couple of inches and her normally icy-blonde hair had turned into tufts of pure gray wisps. I couldn’t help but cover my mouth as she got closer to me.
“Ellie!” She asked louder, squinting in my direction.
I patted the seat next to me. “Hi Nanna, it’s me…Ashton Jansen. I’m so happy to see you again. I remember your pizzas very fondly.”
A look of confusion crossed her face as she cautiously sat down. Then in the blink of an eye, she brightened up. “Ashton? Carl and Betsey Jansen’s daughter?”
“Yes ma’am,” I encouraged her. “That’s me.”
She reached over and embraced me. The dullness in her eyes was instantly gone, replaced by the vibrant blue that I recognized from long ago. “What you are going here?”
“I’m visiting Quinn,” I said, thinking of the best and most honest explanation. I didn’t know if Quinn had actually told his grandmother about my visit or if she had just forgotten. He had never mentioned it to me. Even though I didn’t have any expertise dealing with dementia patients, Quinn had shared enough information that I felt I could handle the situation.
“That’s nice,” she said, patting my hand. “Are your parents and brother here as well? I’d love to see them again.”
“No, Nanna. They’re back in Georgia.”
“Well, you’ve got to ask them to come see us sometime.” Nanna wrapped her hand in mine. “Especially Griffin. I’ve told Quinn it was time to let those hard feelings go and make amends with him. It’s about time … don’t you think, Ashton?”
I raised my brow. Nanna knew about what happened between Griffin and Quinn? This was a little embarrassing.
“Do you remember what happened, Nanna?” I asked. “Why Griffin and Quinn aren’t speaking?”
“All the drugs,” she said as she clucked her tongue. “Such a shame.”
“The drugs?” I asked confused.
“Your brother put some of that damn Devil’s Lettuce in Quinn’s car when he heard the cops were coming to bust up their little party. He didn’t want to get caught with it. When the cops pulled Quinn over and found the drugs. Quinn went to jail. Griffin should have stepped up and taken accountability for his actions but he gladly let Quinn take the fall. Does he regret the rash actions that ruined Quinn’s life? Does he?”
My mind raced and it lacked the information needed to compute and process what she was saying. In addition, Nanna was becoming a little agitated by the confession and that concerned me. I wished Quinn would return soon so I could get some answers. I didn’t want to press the older woman so I kept my tone soft and soothing.
“Are you saying Griffin knowingly placed drugs in Quinn’s vehicle?” My brother had planted drugs on Quinn? He told me that he didn’t know who’d done it. Why had he lied again? Why would he blame this on my brother? That wasn’t Griffin’s way. He was a good kid. An honest kid. He wouldn’t sell his best friend of fifteen years down the river in a leaky canoe.
“You didn’t know, honey?” Nanna asked, continuing to make that judgmental clucking noise with her tongue until I wanted to rail at her to shut up. “That’s why he got sent to live with me. His lawyer made that part of the deal to avoid the juvenile detention hall. If Quinn wanted any chance to get into a good college, he had to comply. But his full ride football scholarship and his chance at the NFL, that was ripped from him by Griffin’s bad choices.”
I couldn’t believe this. Quinn had lied to me. Lied to his parents. His grandmother. Feeding them this line of bullshit about how his pot was Griffin’s. What kind of a friend does that? Just to save face? I knew Griffin smoked pot every now and then, but he would never put his best friend’s life in jeopardy. That’s why Griffin wasn’t talking to Quinn anymore. Because he’d tried to blame his felony possession charge on my brother.
“Nanna, I don’t think my brother would intentionally get Quinn in trouble,” I said, offering a different point of view. Maybe doing so would jolt her memory back to the truth. “That’s not like him.”
Her face scrunched up, turning red. “How dare you say that? My Quinn … my - my husband is nothing but a fine gentleman. You fired him for no good reason. He’s been working for you … he gave twenty-five years of his life to your company! How dare you!”
I tried to pat Nanna’s back. To soothe her. Stall her freak out. I never should have pushed her for my own selfish reasons. I should have simply soothed her upset until Quinn returned to face the music.
“It’s okay. You’re alright…”
But it wasn’t. Because I had no idea what I should do. What if she got so upset she stroked out? Nanna was so frail, so fragile. I’d made Quinn’s grandmother cry and step off the cliff toward a meltdown.
“You need to leave! Where’s Wayne? Wayne!” Nanna stood up, almost losing her balance. Her arms pin wheeled before I caught her and steadied her slight body.
“What’s going on?” a lady in kitten scrubs rounded to corner. “Mrs. Andrews. What you are doing out of bed?”
The nurse wore light pink scrubs with fluffy white kittens chasing balls of colorful yarn. A stethoscope snaked around her neck and a bottle of pills appeared in her clutched fingers. Quinn came in behind her, skidding to a stop when he saw the commotion.
Nanna was now crying, great heaving sobs wracking her body. The nurse had reached her and tried to comfort her as I stood there dumbfounded, mouth agape.
“I - I was just talking to her,” I stuttered. “She asked questions about Griffin. Then she got upset. She wanted her husband.”
“I’ll be right back,” Quinn instructed as he handed me the brown paper sacks of take-out food. Smells of butter lemon shrimp and scallops wafted up through the bag. Normally I would be salivating at the scent of delectable seafood but I was too upset to think about eating right now. I had made Quinn’s grandmother who had dementia visibly upset, like the houseguest that had overstayed their welcome.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes as I took the bags and headed for the house. I swiped at them and washed my hands. Unpacking the bags, I tried to comprehend my conversation with Quinn’s grandmother.
She’d said that Griffin planted the drugs in Quinn’s car. But Quinn told me that he didn’t know who did it. Why would he put the blame on my brother then? None of this made sense.
A few minutes later Quinn walked in the cottage as I pulled out plates and silverware. A pitcher of fresh lemonade and iced tea rested on the kitchen counter. I poured him a glass.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset your grandmother.” My hands shook as Quinn just stared at me. Like he didn’t want to see me again. “She came outside while I sat by the pool waiting for you to come back. At first she didn’t recognize me. She called me Ellie. Then after I told her my name, it was like a light bulb clicked. She remembered baking treats for us. She talked to me about the summer before you left for college.”
Quinn’s face froze. “What exactly did she say?”
“That was the strange part. She said that Griffin had put weed in your car so the cops would think it was yours, not his.” I gripped my hands on the countertop. “That he set you up on purpose and then wouldn
’t admit to what he did. Is that true?”
“Let’s have a seat,” Quinn said. He carried the two glasses of lemonade to the couch, setting them down on the coffee table. “This is something we should’ve talked about a long time ago.”
“What?” I asked in a forceful tone. No more half-truths and evasion. I needed facts.
Quinn continued, “I’m not going to make excuses for Griffin or pretend to even know why he did what he did. All I know is that he set me up. He planted that bag of weed in my car, called the cops, and got me arrested.
“Why in the hell would he do that,” I demanded. “All because you slept with his baby sister? That punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”
Quinn shrugged. “That’s what he told me. After I went to jail, my parents bailed me out. My dad got the police chief to drop the charges and every record of what happened was expunged. So long as it was understood that I wouldn’t do it again, of course. My parents took it a step further and sent me to live with my grandparents for the summer. I told them that I didn’t mind living at the beach, and they thought it was a good idea for me to get away for a while before I went to college. I was packed and gone the next morning. But I lost my full ride football scholarship to Ohio State.”
“How do you know it was Griffin that set you up?” I asked. I still had a hard time believing that my brother would do something so nefarious. I knew that he could be a hothead with a rash temper, but I just couldn’t see him setting Quinn up to get arrested just because he’d deflowered me at a kegger.
“The next day Griffin came to the house. He told me that there were consequences to my actions and next time I should think before doing something so stupid. That I should watch where I stuck my dick in case it got cut off.”
“But did he actually say that he put in the marijuana in your car?” There was no way my brother would stoop so low. I shook with pain at the thought. Quinn tried to put his arms around me but I slapped his hands away. Why was he doing this to me? Forcing me to take sides? Choose between them?
There had to be more to the story than what Quinn was telling me. I had to call Griffin but I needed to be alone to do it. I tried to think back to that night when it all happened. I remembered Griffin being moody, but I thought it was because of his issues with Caroline and had nothing to do with me. I knew that Griffin smoked weed. It was more of a casual thing, though. Or was it? Maybe I didn’t know my brother as well as I thought I did.
“He didn’t come out and admit it but he said everything other than the words.” Quinn drained the rest of his drink. “I can read between the lines. Who else would’ve done it?”
As a negotiator, I didn’t like any sentence that included the word ‘but’. The conjunction negated everything that came before it. Now, considering everything I’d been told, everything had that transpired, it did make sense.
“You still could’ve said goodbye,” I said, going straight to the heart of the matter. At least my heart.
“I know, and I’m so sorry. I was stupid. I should’ve come over and told you how much you meant to me. I guess I was worried about turning you against Griffin. I loved both of you guys and I didn’t want to make matters any worse than they had to be. It wasn’t the best way to handle the situation, and I was wrong.”
Quinn grabbed my arm but I snatched it away again. Touching him only led to one thing and that one thing wasn’t a clear head.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “But it’s the truth. I know you don’t want to hear that about your brother. Why would I lie? Especially after all these years.”
There was that damn ‘but’ again. Suddenly the smell of the seafood caused my stomach to roil. I couldn’t breathe. The walls closed in on me. Quinn had accused my brother of doing something heinous. Griffin Jansen was no saint but he wasn’t a heathen either. He’d never do anything criminal, putting a loved one in jeopardy. And he’d loved Quinn like a brother.
I sucked in a ragged breath and threw my hands in the air. “I’ve got to go.”
“Please Ashton,” he pleaded, clutching at my top but finding thin air. “This is why I never said anything. I didn’t want to come between you and Griffin. I know how much you worshipped him. It was best that I left. My parents wanted a fresh start for me. And I got one.”
I speared him with a glare. “Do my parent’s know? Have you spat your venom at my mother?”
Quinn’s eyes widened at my verbal assault. I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt him like he’d continued to hurt me. Dig the knife in so deep I’d have to twist it to pull it out. “I would assume Griffin told them the same story he told everyone else.”
“I need to go,” I repeated. “Give me time to digest this, Quinn. Please respect my privacy and leave me alone. I’ll contact you when I’m ready to see you again.”
“We can talk tomorrow?” Quinn asked, hope still lighting his blue eyes.
“No, I’m going back to Atlanta. Everything is done here anyway. I need to get back to the office and start the ball rolling on this hotel deal.”
“Please, Ashton Just stay one more day. We can figure this out.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
But I wasn’t. I wasn’t sorry at all.
“Will you call me when you arrive? At least let me know that you made it home okay?”
I conceded that small point with a nod.
And for the second time in twenty-four hours, I walked out on Quinn Andrews. Just like he’d done to me.
Chapter 5
Quinn
“I messed up Nanna,” I said. Sitting by at my grandmother’s bedside, I held her shaking hand. She’d been in and out of lucidity all evening, which wasn’t unusual for her. But it seemed worse somehow without Ashton to support him. After the long overdue confessions of the past. The night nurse had given her something to help her sleep and it made her woozy.
“Why?” Nanna asked. Her eyes fluttered open. And they seemed bright and curious with understanding of the question.
“Ashton doesn’t believe me,” I said, laying my head on the edge of her soft mattress. “She thinks I’m lying about the night I got arrested.”
“You’re a good boy,” Nanna said sleepily as she patted me on the head.
I tucked rose and tucked the blanket around her frail body. “Love you.”
A few minutes later she drifted off to sleep. As I watched her sleep, I thanked God for everything that my grandparent’s had done for me. After my arrest, I’d felt like I had embarrassed my family. A lot of people wouldn’t think it was a big deal, but to me it was. To my family it was. Especially, since I hadn’t divulged the whole story. I’d protected Griffin until the end and taken the high road. He’d taken the ditch.
I still let my parents think I was responsible for the weed. I should have told them the truth from the beginning. I was protecting the wrong person. I’d chosen Griffin over Ashton which had been my first mistake in a long line.
Now I may have lost her again.
Chapter 6
Ashton
“How was the beach?” my best friend Courtney asked. “Did you recharge your batteries with a little sun and surf. See any hotties running on the white sand?”
If she only knew.
We sat at a cozy table for two at Canoe, our favorite restaurant, which overlooked the Chattahoochee River on the outskirts of Atlanta. Courtney and I had been besties since high school so I didn’t have to fill her in on the whole sordid history. Now, we worked together at the real estate firm together as well. Courtney knew me better than anyone else. We had been friends since we were in third grade when Courtney had pulled my pigtails and I’d lost a chunk of my hair to her aggressive yank. She’d apologized and we’d done a pinky swear. The unbreakable bond.
“I guess you could say that,” I answered. Recharging my batteries was one way of looking at toe-curling sex. The torrents of raw emotion? Not so much. “I ran into someone from our past, actually.”
“Really? Who?”
Courtney edged closer, eagerness causing her brown eyes to widen and twinkle in anticipation.
“You aren’t going to believe me when I tell you.”
Courtney stuffed a piece of lobster roll in her mouth and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a tease. Spill girlfriend.”
“Quinn Andrews,” I offered without missing a beat, making sure she had her mouth full when I laid it down. The news of the decade.
She swallowed the big lump of lobster in her mouth, almost choking. “No way! How is that even possible?” She asked through watery eyes.
“He was the lawyer that worked for the developer, Mr. Albertson.”
“Oh my god!” she wiped her mouth on the paper napkin and shook her finger in my face. “And you never called to tell me this? How could you keep this a secret for so long?”
I shrugged. “It was a busy week. We had a snafu with the deal. Honestly, the time went by so fast, I didn’t even think of it.”
“Bullshit. Tell me everything that happened. And don’t leave out one gory detail.”
I gave the short version of the story. How I was surprised to see Quinn in the boardroom that first morning. How his boss bamboozled us into having dinner. How I managed to close the deal in the end. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her about the sex part. Because I knew what she’d say and I didn’t want to hear an I told you so. She couldn’t berate me anymore ferociously than I did to myself the entire flight home.
Courtney studied me with her big, brown eyes, similar to how my mother would when I was fibbing about something and didn’t want to get into trouble. “You’re not telling me everything.”
I sighed. It was no use. She would get it out of me eventually. I finally gave her what she wanted, probably already knew, but forced me to verbalize. “We had sex.”
She snapped her fingers and grinned from ear to ear. “I knew it! Deets, please.”
Lowering my voice a few octaves I said, “I’m not giving you any details. Those are private.”
Wasted Love Boxed Set: Second Chance Romance Parts 1-3 Page 11
