Wasted Love Boxed Set: Second Chance Romance Parts 1-3

by Charles, Colleen

  Courtney motioned for the waiter to bring us another bottle of wine. “You know I’ll get it out of you. Even if I have to ply you with cheap red wine. Come on,” she said, topping off my wine glass with the last few drops of our first bottle.

  So, I gave in and when I was done, tears pooled in my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. And now that I’d opened the floodgates, I was afraid this was going to turn into the ugly cry.

  Courtney handed me a fresh napkin and took my hand in hers.

  “If you had so much fun with him then why the waterworks now?”

  My best friend didn’t miss a thing.

  “My last day in Destin, I talked to his grandmother,” I managed to get out between great, heaving sobs. A couple two tables over started staring and whispering behind their hands. Courtney motioned to the server to bring another bottle of Cabernet.

  “Oh, yeah,” Courtney nodded. “I’d heard that she had gotten worse over the years. So sad. Remember she used to make us the best cookies? And those mini pizzas were to die for.”

  “Well, she was pretty lucid when she told me that Quinn had left soon after he’d been arrested for felony possession of marijuana. That’s why he was sent away the summer after graduation. To Florida.”

  Courtney rolled her eyes. “We knew loads of kids that got in trouble during and after high school, doing stupid shit they’d later regret. Are you really going to hold that over his head? He’s a successful attorney now, right? Graduated Harvard Law?”

  “It’s not about the arrest itself. It’s about the fact that he’s now trying to pin it on my brother.”

  “How so?” Courtney asked, still unimpressed.

  “He said that Griffin set him up,” I’d stopped sobbing and one lonely tear remained. I captured it with the napkin and set the white paper down on the table.

  “What?” she gasped, leaning back in her chair. “No way.”

  “Apparently, Griffin heard us that night. You know …”

  “Yeah, when Quinn stamped your v-card. So what?”

  “Anyway, Griffin went bananas according to Quinn, and planted the weed in his car. The cops were called and they pulled Quinn over. When they found the drugs, Quinn went to jail.”

  “Pretty elaborate plan just to get back at someone,” she said, still unimpressed.

  “That’s what I thought,” I wailed. “Now, I don’t know who or what to believe.”

  “Why would Quinn lie about it? Seems strange he would hold so tightly to a lie for ten years.”

  “No idea. But I can’t see Griffin setting up his best friend like that. I mean, you and I have been best friends since grade school. If you royally pissed me off, I certainly wouldn’t set you up for a drug bust or anything that like. That’s taking it pretty far. Don’t you think?”

  “Did you ask Griffin about this?”

  “Not yet,” I said. “And I’m not going to. It’s his wedding this weekend. I know he’s stressing about a lot of things right now and I’m not going to pile it on because I want closure. That’s a selfish agenda that I won’t adhere to. The last thing he needs is his younger sister accusing him of doing something that happened over ten years ago.”

  “True. But you do need to ask him,” she insisted. “Eventually.”

  “I plan on talking to my mother on Friday,” I said. “I’m sure she knows the particulars. You’ll be at the rehearsal dinner, right? For moral support. In case I break down again and need to high tail it to the Ladies.”

  “Of course,” she reassured me with a pat to my hand. “I’ll even open the stall door for you. I wouldn’t miss the blessed event.”

  I took a bite of the delicious rainbow trout. Now that I’d unloaded on Courtney, my appetite had returned. “Well, thanks again for dinner, Court.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” she smiled. “You deserve it after your big promotion today.”

  “I’m still pinching myself.”

  “I heard Henri was really impressed with your closing skills. I can’t wait to get my hands on the new place,” she lamented.

  Courtney worked as an interior designer at the firm. She would be the one doing all the work on the new hotel and restaurant. Her work had been featured in the all the top designer magazines. Now if I could only get her to help with my cluttered apartment.

  I pushed my empty plate away. “What am I going to do?”

  I realized the question was more for me to answer than it was for Courtney. I’d had Quinn cemented in my brain since I’d left Destin. I really hoped that we had a chance at a relationship but I didn’t hold out much hope. After my text to let him know I’d arrived home safely, he’d respected my request to be left alone to think.

  “First thing you need to do is find out the truth. If your brother did set him up, then it seems to me you have an apology to make,” she said matter-of-factly. “If Quinn is lying to you, then it’s just time to move on. You don’t want to start off a relationship built on lies, Ashton. The real estate mogul in you should know that any building erected on sand crumbles.”

  Exactly what I’d been thinking. It just made my logic solid hearing it from my best friend. “You’re right.”

  “I do have another option, though,” she suggested. “Something to get your mind off all this unwelcome drama from the past. Jeez, it’s like Quinn Andrews rode back into your life in Dr. Emmett Brown’s DeLorean.

  “What’s could possibly pull my sexual fantasies away from Quinn?” I asked. “He’s the man on which naughty fantasies were built.”

  “Beckham has a friend coming into town this weekend. He thinks his buddy is the perfect match for you. We could double date to your brother’s wedding?” Courtney batted her eyelashes at me in a hopeful way. I understood her plan of attack. She didn’t want me being spinster at my brother’s wedding. Or the third wheel at the head table.

  Beckham was Courtney’s boyfriend of two years. He was a good-looking guy and an accountant who worked with our company. I wasn’t so sure about his matchmaking skills, though. “What does this guy look like?”

  Courtney scrolled through her cell phone. “I happen to have his picture right here. He’s friends with me on Facebook.”

  I peered at the picture on her screen. He was cute. He had dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and a gorgeous smile with dimples and everything. “He has some potential,” I agreed. “But I’m not sure I’m ready to throw in the towel with Quinn just yet.”

  “He can tag along to the wedding with us, at least. I’m sure your parent’s won’t mind another guest. You never put down your plus one anyway,” Courtney reminded me.

  My mother had been hounding me lately, wondering who I was going to bring to the wedding. With work being so busy, I hadn’t had time to think about a date.

  “Okay, on one condition. This is just a friendly date. No strings attached kind of a thing.”

  Courtney laughed. “I’ll think you’ll change your mind once you see him in person. But whatever you say. At least agree to a slow dance and a stolen kiss behind the potted plants after too many champagne toasts.”

  The thought of kissing another man made me physically ill. Because I felt like I already belonged to Quinn Andrews. And I already had. For the past ten years. He’d been my one and only.

  The waiter dropped off the check as we finished the second bottle of wine. Courtney swiped the check before I could even reach for it. “Remember…this is my treat Ivanka Trump. You’ll be running the place someday and I’ll be reporting to you.”

  Tonight hadn’t been the time to spring the news about Quinn and my move to Florida on Courtney. Guilt riddled my insides. I hated hiding things from her.

  “Now that I’m head of acquisitions, I can pay for both of us,” I offered.

  “Pish posh, Ashton Jansen. You can get the movie,” Courtney said, laying down two hundred-dollar bills in the black leather check case.

  Checking my watch I realized we only had a few minutes before our show began. It was the newest rom-com featuring
Cameron Diaz and Tina Fey – perfect for a girl’s night. “Sounds like a plan. We’ll need to leave now or we’ll miss the showing.”

  Chapter 7

  Quinn

  I fingered the creamy white invitation with its raised silver lettering, and unfolded the contents. A paper thin piece of vellum escaped the embossed envelope and floated to the floor when I opened the folded invite.

  You are cordially invited to celebrate

  the wedding of

  Sara Elizabeth Gillies

  and

  Griffin William Jansen

  On Saturday evening

  June the 2nd

  at six o’clock in the evening

  Roswell on the Green

  Followed by a reception

  The invitation had arrived a few weeks earlier but I hadn’t seen it until now. Way too late to RSVP. Just another nail in my coffin with Ashton’s parents. Now, they could add rude to the top of their long list of my faults. Deflowering their only daughter was right up there too.

  Nanna had the expensive paper buried in a pile of old mail. As I sat in her living room, sipping a cup of hot tea and watching her work on her adult coloring book, I contemplated going even though I hadn’t sent back my card in the stamped envelope to Mrs. Jansen. Today had been a good day for Nanna. She was the most lucid I had seen her in a very long time. I could leave. If I wanted to.

  “Are you going to keep staring at that thing all day?” Nanna asked without looking up from her coloring book. One of her favorite nurses, Madeline, had given Nanna the adult coloring book for her birthday along with a tray of one hundred colors of gel pens. It was the perfect gift for keeping her mind busy.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I answered truthfully. Part of me wanted to put the past behind me and move on. The other part wanted to confront my issue with Griffin because it was the only way I was going to have a shot at a relationship with Ashton. Was she worth it? I thought so. But his wedding wasn’t the venue for an age-old confrontation.

  “What does your heart tell you?” she asked, just pre-dementia Nanna would have done.

  “Go to the wedding,” I answered without hesitation.

  And punch him in his smug face, then his cowardly balls.

  “You should go,” she said simply.

  “I don’t want to leave you,” I said.

  “I’ll go with you,” she said with a smile as she colored Snoopy’s head bright read. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been back home, after all.”

  “Do you really feel up to it?” I asked, concern dripping from my tone. Just because she was having a good day didn’t mean she was up to a flight to Atlanta.

  If I took Nanna, we would have to drive. It would be a long six hours and I was concerned about that. What if she had a meltdown in the car? Got violent and caused an accident?

  Nanna stopped coloring. She ran a hand through her dull grey hair. “I’ll be fine, Quinn. Don’t worry about me. I’m sure your mother would love the chance to babysit me all weekend while you attend the festivities.”

  Actually, it was my mother’s idea to bring Nanna with me to the wedding. We didn’t know how much time with still had with her, and my mother thought it would be good to have the whole family together one last time. They were still close with Griffin’s family and everyone would be in town for the wedding.

  “Okay, I’ll have Madeline help pack your bags. We can leave Thursday morning.”

  “Glad that’s settled.”

  Chapter 8

  Ashton

  “Mom, I have something to ask you.” I picked up another sheet of sparkly silver foil paper. My mom sat across from me at the scratched kitchen table as we wrapped gifts for the wedding party. Griffin had picked out sterling silver engraved flasks for the groomsmen along with a really expensive bottle of tequila. Perfect gifts, for his friends. I wondered if they’d all toked up at the bachelor party.

  No. That wasn’t fair. I still didn’t know the truth.

  I also wondered if Griffin had thought of Quinn during his decision to ask his friends to serve in his wedding party. Missed him, even with a sigh instead of a breath. If that night had never happened, I had no doubt that Quinn would have served as Griffin’s best man this weekend.

  My mother taped a small white bow on a present that I had just wrapped. “This sounds serious,” she said. “Go on.”

  “What happened the night Quinn got arrested?” I asked in a small voice. Not sure I even wanted to know the answer. Because the truth doesn’t always set you free. Sometimes, it throws you in a gilded cage without a key.

  “Quinn Andrews?”

  She knew whom I was talking about. “I want to know the truth,” I insisted.

  “Did you see him while you were in Destin last week?”

  That’s my mom, Trudy, the queen of avoidance. She would rather stick her head in the sand and pretend nothing was wrong. I loved my mother to death but she had a history of being non-confrontational and was a master of redirecting the questions she preferred not to answer.

  “Yes, I had to work with him on the property that were purchasing,” I said. “But then you knew he was there in Destin, didn’t you? Mom, you could have warned me. Especially, since you know the history.”

  “Huh, it’s a small world,” she said, shoulders slumped and gaze downcast. Contrite was a good look for her but it didn’t stop me from pressing.

  “What happened, Mom? Did Griffin do something to Quinn?”

  My mother continued to tape the bows, not making eye contact. “You’ll have to ask Griffin about that.”

  I hissed out an exasperated breath, the frustration shooting through my body to land in a painful heap at my temples. I rubbed the throbbing away. “But I’m asking you. This is important to me.”

  She finally peeled her eyes away from the tape dispenser and looked at me. “Why?”

  “Because I like Quinn and if we’re going to move forward with our relationship, I need to know the truth. I’m owed the truth.”

  “That was so long ago, Ashton. The boys were just that. Boys. Immature, without a care in the world.” Mom continued with her wrapping. “Sometimes it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.”

  I snapped my eyes up and glared at her. “Better for whom? Griffin or Quinn.” I finished wrapping the last present and handed it to her. “It sounds like you’re making excuses for bad behavior. And it’s just not just boys being boys. This involves me, too. I deserve to know the truth.”

  “Watch your tone with me, Ashton Jansen.” She argued with me, eyes flashing. Just another pathetic attempt to stop the line of questioning. Sometimes, lack of information was the same as too much information. Her unwillingness to tell the truth, led me to believe that Quinn was telling the truth and Griffin had something to hide.

  Pushing the last present toward my mom I said, “I’m not being disrespectful, Mom. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. I will ask Griffin myself.”

  “Wait until after the wedding so nothing ruins his special day,” she backpedaled. “Your brother has enough going on,” she said. “Quinn’s parents will be there. I didn’t get a RSVP from Quinn or his grandmother, so I’m assuming they aren’t going to make it.”

  “Yeah, I doubt it. His grandmother didn’t look like she was feeling well.”

  “I always adored Nanna. She’s a lovely lady. And a fabulous cook to boot,” my mother said.

  “Quinn takes care of her, you know,” I said, staring at her face to gauge her reaction. “He lives behind her house in a cottage. He refuses to put her in a nursing home. He pays for her to have round-the-clock care.”

  “Sounds like you spent quite a bit of time with them,” my mother said.

  “I did.”

  My mom reached across the table and patted my hand. “I always liked Quinn and treated him like a son. It was a shame what happened between him and Griffin. But it’s their problem to work out. After the wedding, you can talk to Griffin if you must. Just be prepared t
o hear answers you may not like.”

  Answers I may not like because they reflected poorly on Quinn? Or Griffin?

  I got up to fix a pitcher of iced tea. I really hadn’t expected to pry much out of my mother. But I would get the answers I needed from Griffin. He wasn’t going to be able to slither away from the issue like a snake in the grass.

  My cell phone buzzed across the granite countertop. I took a peek at the caller ID and my heart stopped. Because this caller wasn’t supposed to be reaching out to me.

  Quinn Andrews.

  ***

  WASTED LOVE

  Part 3

  By

  Colleen Charles

  Chapter 1

  Quinn

  Even though she didn’t know it yet, I’d placed her in the position of importance in my contacts. Right underneath Nanna and Albertson. The drive to Atlanta had been uneventful. Nanna still slept thanks to the generous dose of Valium the nurse had given her before we left. I had some of the final paperwork for the real estate deal in my briefcase and needed one final signature from Ashton’s boss, Henri.

  “Hello?” Ashton answered, her sexy voice slid over me like verbal silk and my body tightened in response.

  “Hey, it’s me,” I said, breathing deeply. Now was not the time to get aroused while my elderly grandmother slept next to me.

  “I was just talking about you,” she said. She sounded cheerful enough. “With Mrs. Trudy Jansen.”

  “Really? Good things I hope?” I asked.

  “My mom and I were just reminiscing about the old days.”

  That comment revealed nothing about what Trudy might have divulged. My heart galloped in my chest. To pry or not to pry? “Ah, I see.”

  “What’s up?” she asked. “This better be good since you’ve violated the summer fling code of ethics?”

  “What?” I asked. I’d never heard of that particular code of conduct.

  “Yes, Quinn Andrews,” she said with an infectious giggle. “When the lady you’ve just had a fling with tells you she needs space and not to call her, she means it.”