Keeping Quinn: The Next Generation

by Edwards, Riley

  So needless to say, the night had been eye-opening.

  “Finish your drink,” Quinn instructed. “We’ll watch out for Bridgett.”

  “Thanks.” Paula sucked back her drink, opened the smallest purse I’d ever seen, swiped gloss over her lips, then stood, pulling down her very short dress. “Do I look okay?”

  “You look great,” Quinn happily told her.

  “Brice?” Paula’s eyes came to mine and all the drunken bravado disappeared. She cared enough about what Jeremy thought to ask me.

  Interesting. Another tidbit of information into the mind of a woman.

  “Yeah, darlin’, you look beautiful.”

  Paula’s face changed, and I noted if she gave Jeremy that look, soft and warm, no pretense, the man was fucked. Paula was pretty, but when she smiled sweetly it ratcheted up that pretty considerably.

  “You guys are the best. Have fun tonight.” Paula winked at Quinn and strutted across the room in a pair of heels that I knew would be put to good use when Jeremy got her home.

  “You okay?” Quinn asked.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, you had to sit and endure girl talk. And by the by, you were a good sport about it.”

  “That shit normal?”

  “No. They were laying it on thick.”

  “Right.” I leaned closer to Quinn and whispered, “So…you like that thing I do with my tongue?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Before I could tell her exactly what I planned on doing with my tongue and what she’d be doing while I was giving her what she liked, Bridgett and her man walked back to the table.

  “See you tomorrow,” the guy said and kissed Bridgett’s forehead.

  “Tomorrow, Chris.” Bridgett smiled.

  Jesus.

  “Later.” The guy called Chris waved as he left.

  “What happened?” Quinn launched in.

  “We’re going out tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, he said he’d show me all the things he does with his tongue, but he’d be showing me when I was sober. He gave me his number and told me to call him in the morning.”

  Okay, so maybe this Chris guy wasn’t such a douche.

  “You gonna call?” Quinn whispered.

  “Fuck, yeah. Did you see him? And I got a nice preview when he—”

  “And, we’re done,” I told the women. “Let’s roll.”

  “Someone’s in a hurry,” Bridgett grumbled.

  I didn’t feel the need to explain why I wanted to get my woman home. And by the way both of them laughed, I figured it wasn’t necessary either.

  “You’re a lucky bitch.” Bridgett smiled.

  “Yeah, I am.” Quinn returned the grin before she looked up at me and her grin turned into a smile.

  Simply breathtaking.

  21

  My phone pinged and it took all my willpower to finish typing out the email that needed to be sent to my dad and uncles in the next five minutes.

  I was back to work and my family was hovering. But I didn’t let it bother me. This was what they did.

  I clicked send and reached for my phone, swiped to unlock it, and smiled when I saw the text from Brice.

  Brice: Just checkin’ in, beautiful. How’s your day?

  My day was shit, that’s how it was. I hadn’t seen Brice in over twenty-four hours, and earlier the district attorney, Mrs. Peacock, had called to inform me Kenneth Allen’s trial was coming up and she needed me to come in so they could start prepping me. Mrs. Peacock also reminded me Kenneth’s attorney would be reaching out soon to depose me.

  I was not looking forward to speaking to Kenneth’s attorney but I didn’t have a choice. I had to be strong.

  Me: DA called. She needs me to come in for trial prep.

  I tossed in a few grimacing face emojis and then a few red-horned angry faces for good measure.

  Suddenly my phone rang and I smiled when Brice’s name appeared.

  “Hey,” I greeted. “You didn’t have to call.”

  “Babe.” One word that warmed me to my core. “When do you need to go in?”

  There it was, he’d have my back. I knew it by the way he asked he wouldn’t let me go at it alone.

  “I told her I’d call her back after I talked to you and my dad.”

  “Perfect. If your dad can’t do it on one of my days off let me know and I’ll take a vacation day.”

  See? Totally had my back.

  “You’ve already taken enough vacation. We’ll work it around your schedule.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Well, I am. I don’t want you wasting anymore days on this. Vacation days are supposed to be used for fun.”

  “All right, sweetheart. You work it out. What else did she say?”

  I took a deep breath and tried to sound as brave as I could. “She reminded me Kenneth’s attorney would be in touch soon.”

  “Fuck,” Brice snapped.

  “It’s okay. You’ll be there.”

  “Damn right, I will be. Still pisses me off he has the right to speak to you. I don’t even want the fucker to look at you.”

  “It’ll just be his attorney,” I reminded him.

  “Right, an attorney who is defending that asshole.”

  “You know I love it when you get all growly and protective, right?”

  “Don’t get cute when I’m pissed,” he warned.

  “Kinda hard not to be cute when you have me squirming in my chair.”

  “Now you’re turning me on when I’m pissed, at work, and won’t get to do something about it for another two days.”

  “You could do something about it.”

  “Using my fist in the shower isn’t the same and you fuckin’ know it.”

  My eyes widened in shock and my face heated.

  “Do you…do you… um… do that?” I whispered.

  Thank God, Brice wasn’t there to see my blush.

  “Fuck, yeah.”

  “Oh.”

  “How ‘bout tonight when you’re not at work, I tell you about it?”

  Yes, please.

  I squeezed my thighs together and tried to alleviate some of the ache thinking about him jerking off had created.

  “You’re on.”

  “Good. Gotta get back to work. You good?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  “Call you tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  Brice rang off and I put my phone on the desk, smiling. Something to look forward to.

  Damn, I missed him. I missed sleeping next to him, I missed waking up next to him, I missed him kissing me, I missed everything.

  “Now that’s what I like to see,” my Uncle Levi said from the doorway.

  I glanced up and smiled at my uncle. “Figured you were next up on rotation.”

  My uncle’s face gentled and he walked farther into my office.

  “Actually, I’m not here to check on you.” Levi sat in one of the two chairs in front of my desk. “But now that you mention it, how are you holding up?”

  “I didn’t mention it.”

  Levi’s lips tipped up and his golden eyes lit with humor.

  “Have you talked to Jackson?” he asked.

  “No. I’ve called once and texted twice, he’s ignoring me.”

  “Give him a minute, he’ll get over it.”

  “Right,” I muttered, not wanting to think about Jackson and how badly he was hurting me.

  We’d been friends our whole lives and I knew when I started things with Brice it would piss him off. I knew he was protective of me, I knew Jackson would take it personally when I didn’t confide in him, so I knew he had a right to be mad. But, that didn’t excuse what he said at my parents’ house and it didn’t make it okay he was now ignoring me.

  “So, Brice,” my uncle drawled.

  “He makes me happy.”

  “Good.”

  My head tilted and I studied Levi—he looked like he meant that, which w
as good but suspect.

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, sweetheart, that’s it. If he makes you happy that’s all that matters.”

  “You’re not gonna warn me off? Tell me I’m crazy? Remind me about his past?”

  “Way I see it, you’re smart enough to know your mind and your heart. Not my place to warn you about anything. We all got a past, Quinn. And I am in no place to judge a man who’s taken the options that were available to him. But I am a man who knows that when the woman who you’re meant to spend your life with brings you to your knees, those options cease to exist. And not because they’re not still available, you simply don’t care that they are.”

  “And that’s what you think? I’m the one to bring him to his knees?”

  “Quinn, I think no man is going to go head-to-head with your father unless that’s exactly who you are to him. Brice isn’t stupid. He knew the obstacles and he was well-aware that Jackson would be the least of his worries. Brice has been around enough to know your dad. And the way Jasper told it, Brice has got some brass balls showing up at the house with a busted lip demanding to see you. That said, your dad’s far from stupid, so he knows what you mean to Brice, and if he didn’t believe it, your ass would be sleeping in your bedroom under his roof and not next to your man. And you know that’s the truth.”

  I did know that to be true. When Jasper Walker wanted something, he got it, even if what he wanted was his adult daughter moving back in.

  “You’re right.”

  “I know I am.” Uncle Levi smiled and leaned forward. “Hope you know if you ever need to talk I’m always around.”

  “I know.”

  “Good. Now we got training schedules to go over.”

  “Okay. Sock it to me.”

  Over the next hour, Uncle Levi went over everything I needed to know about setting up the schedules, a new responsibility I was taking over at Triple Canopy. And all throughout that hour my other uncles and my dad popped their heads in. I didn’t frown or get annoyed. I was damn lucky four big, strong men loved me as much as they did. I was one lucky girl.

  * * *

  “He did what?” I seethed.

  I was sitting on my couch still in my work clothes having just gotten home when Brice called to tell me about his day.

  And what he told me, pissed me off.

  “Babe, not telling you this shit to work you up. I just thought you’d want to know.”

  What Brice thought I’d want to know was Jackson had asked the captain to switch his shifts opposite of Brice’s so they’d no longer work together. It was stupid and over the top.

  “He’s acting like a child.”

  “He’s acting like a man who’s been wronged by two people he cares about. We have to give him some time.”

  It wasn’t in my nature to give anyone time. I wasn’t like my sister, Delaney, who could hold a mean grudge. I knew growing up that my family thought it was a two-way street, she and I bickering then not speaking to each other for weeks, but it wasn’t. Delaney was the one who’d perfected the silent treatment, it had driven me crazy—still did. I hated being ignored.

  “It’s annoying when you’re right. Because now that he’s acting like a baby I want to call him repeatedly until he picks up his phone. Or better yet, I want to call Tuesday so she can kick his ass.”

  “Not a good idea. You need to let me handle him.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because if he mouths off to you and hurts your feelings I’m gonna get pissed. He says shit to me, as long as it isn’t putting you down, I’ll get over it. We just need to ride this out.”

  “For how long?”

  Brice paused and I heard him blow out a breath.

  “Fucking sucks I gotta say this to you, but it may take a while. He’s known me a long time, and what he knows…he’s not feeling all that fired-up about his best friend being with a man like me.”

  “That’s stupid, Brice. He knows the kind of man you are, therefore he should know you’re a good man and everyone has a past,” I pointed out, repeating what Uncle Levi had told me earlier.

  “A past that includes Jackson. A past he had a front row seat to. A past he’s not happy about when someone he cares about is my future.”

  Damn, that felt good. It also felt like a dream, like I couldn’t believe that Brice was planning a future with me, that he’d been the one to demand commitment and push for promises.

  “That’s dumb. And if he’d call me back, he’d know that I don’t give a flying rat’s ass about your past. And let’s not forget, I know about his past. I know who he was before he met Tuesday. I know he went trolling with you and I know he picked up more than his share of women. I also lived through his high school years and he nailed anything in a skirt. So it’s pretty shitty, this double standard he’s got going on. But more than all of that, Jackson is my best friend, he should be happy for me. He should be by my side supporting me just like I did when he started with Tuesday. And let’s also not forget that he started his relationship with Tuesday the same way we started ours. Sex. No strings. Hell, she kicked his ass out of her house as soon as they were done. I know this because he shared and I was a good friend and listened.”

  “Babe—”

  “No, Brice, just no. The more I think on this, the less I’m mad he’s being a dick to you and the more hurt I am that he’s doing this to me. He should be happy for me.”

  “You’re right, baby, and I’m sorry he’s not. But you have to know, this is about me—not you. His love and concern for you runs deep. I should’ve handled this differently.”

  “I disagree. We should’ve been allowed to handle our business however we wanted to handle it. He’s being an ass.”

  A very loud siren sounded in the background, so loud in fact I had to pull my phone from my ear.

  “Fuck, Quinn, I gotta roll. Call you when I’m back.”

  “Be safe.”

  “Always.”

  Brice disconnected and my heart jumped into my throat. That was not the first time he’d had to cut a conversation short because of an emergency call, but it was the first time I’d heard it. And for some reason hearing the alarm was worse. I wasn’t new—Jackson being a firefighter meant I had lots of experience loving someone who had a dangerous occupation. Hell, all of the men and my cousin, Liberty, all had jobs where they put their lives in danger, but there was a difference.

  I couldn’t explain what that difference was because I loved and cared for them all, but Brice going out on a call had me wound up in a different way. Before I could process the whys and wherefores of my newfound panic, there was a knock at my door and another sort of anxiety crept in.

  It hit me so hard, I had to remind myself that Kenneth Allen—the murderer—was behind bars. I’d thought learning the man’s name would ease some of my fear, that having a name would make him more human than scary monster, but it didn’t. Now he was simply a monster with a name.

  It took me a second to gather myself before I walked to the door and looked out the peephole.

  Hadley.

  I quickly unlocked my door and opened it wide.

  “Hey!”

  My sister pushed her way in, a scowl on her face. Oh, shit.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked and shut the door.

  “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? I’ll tell you what’s wrong.”

  I waited and waited and waited some more but apparently my sister wasn’t ready to share because she didn’t continue.

  “Well? You gonna spit it out?”

  “I cannot believe you.”

  Oh, shit. Hadley was in a snit. Out of the four of us girls, she was the one who was most inclined to drama. This was undisputed. When Hadley had an issue, everyone better brace because the girl let it rip. It started when she was three, and twenty years later, the attitude had not waned.

  Brice. Shit.

  “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I was gonna tell you. As a matter of fact, I was getting ready to
call you.”

  That was only an itsy-bitsy lie. Hadley was on my list of people to call, I just wasn’t sure if I’d get to make that tonight.

  “Right. Mom and Dad know. The uncles know. Delaney knows. Jackson knows which means Tuesday does, too. Bridgett and Paula know. But you know who didn’t know? Who had to hear that her big sister finally landed Brice Lancaster from Paula? Me.”

  Damn, but Paula had a big freaking mouth.

  “I’m sorry. So sorry. You’re right. I should’ve called you.”

  “Damn right, I’m right.”

  “I said I was sorry, what else do you want me to say?”

  Hadley dumped her bag on my kitchen table and walked through my small apartment until she plopped down on my couch and crossed her arms.

  “I want details,” she demanded.

  “Details?”

  “Yes. Start from the beginning and don’t you dare leave a single thing out. You don’t think I remember how long you’ve been drooling over Brice, you’re wrong. I want all the deets.”

  “I haven’t been drooling,” I denied.

  “Sister, the first time he came to a barbeque at Uncle Lenox and Aunt Lily’s house and he took off his shirt to jump in the pool.” Hadley stopped to shake her head. “Your jaw about hit the ground. Not that I blamed you, the man is smokin’ hot. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to look at first—his abs, his chest, or his tattoo.”

  “That’s still not drooling,” I defended, though I couldn’t refute the fact I had stared at Brice. Though my sister was correct, there was a lot to look at, so much so your eyes didn’t know where to start or what to focus on.

  “Whatever. Stop playing word games and tell me.”

  “How much do you want to know?”

  Hadley smiled huge. Drama over.

  “Everything!”

  It took a while but I told my sister everything. Well, almost everything. There were a few details I left out, mainly the sexy fun times. But she knew everything else. Including that Brice had discussed having children with me. Something that was so insanely crazy I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  “He wants kids?” she breathed.

  Not surprising she’d picked that topic to henpeck out of everything I told her.

  “That’s what he said.”