Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
We were in the door all of three seconds when he placed the little girl on the floor, and she ran toward a man in the corner of the room who caught her with laughable ease. As if he was used to doing it every single day, even in the middle of conversations like he was having now.
I followed suit with Tex, and he took off running, not toward who I assumed was his dad, but toward the kitchen where I could see an older, but just as sexy, version of Quincy in the kitchen fiddling with something on the counter I couldn’t quite see.
My eyes stayed there long enough for it to be awkward to everyone else in the room.
“Mom, Dad,” I heard Quincy call out. “Where’s that…”
“Here.”
I looked up to find a man very similar to Quincy holding out his hand, an opaque bag extending toward him.
Quincy took it, then turned to me, bag in hand.
I stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to everyone?” I blurted, not sure I wanted to see what was in that bag, but knowing he was going to force me to take it.
“Sure,” he said. “Along that outer wall right there,” he pointed at the wall that held the longest couch. “That’s Atlas and Gable sitting down. Auden is standing up but leaning on the couch. Then,” he pointed at the next wall with a smaller couch, “that’s Quaid and Quinn, the two and three of our triplet pair. The one in the kitchen is my dad, Germaine. The one outside peeing off the back porch is Garrett. He gestured toward the man and woman from earlier. “These two are Keene and Ande. Ande is my sister. Keene is the extra.”
“The extra?” Keene chuckled. “I guess that’s not a bad thing to be.”
“Unless it’s an extra thirty pounds,” Gable called out, his eyes fixed on me. “Am I right?”
I nodded with commiseration.
“Okay, time to rip the Band-Aid off,” I heard Quincy mutter.
Then he pulled out a box from the bag he was holding and handed it to me. “Before you freak out on me, I’m not going to give this to you. You can make payments, or whatever you need to do. I just got it because I saw the relief on your face when you saw you got a computer. My sister, Ande,” he pointed at a gorgeous curly-haired woman in the corner with the toddler on her hip. “Stopped by the mall on the way here and grabbed it. It’s exactly like the one your sister got.”
“Wait, what?” The woman came forward. “Your sister?”
The large man beside her, the one who looked vaguely familiar for some reason, pulled her back then placed a hand over her mouth. He said something in her ear that had her melting into him.
The jealousy that speared through me at the sight was surprising.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Long story.”
“I’m here for a long story. You can tell it over dinner. We’re having lasagna.”
My eyebrows went up, and I stared at Quincy. “We’re having lasagna?”
“Mom was trying to decide what to make, and I kind of pointed her in the direction of Italian and she ran with it,” he said.
This man…
What the hell was he doing to me?
I felt the tears start to come, unable to stop them.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Garnett said as she hustled to my side. “He’s just so extra sometimes.”
The tears that were threatening dissipated under her words.
I looked toward her and said, “I mean, he is. He’s currently stalking me.”
Garnett gasped and turned toward her son. “He what?”
Wanted: a tiny dragon to incinerate assholes, shitty drivers, and dumbasses.
—Quincy’s secret thoughts
QUINCY
I grinned at her. “If anyone wants to talk about stalking, it should be you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve yet to be caught, or charged, for stalking.”
“You are the only one with a restraining order in this room, though,” I said before thinking.
She gasped.
“Quincy!” she cried out. “What the hell?”
“Sorry,” I replied sheepishly. “But I’m not stalking you.”
“Then what would you call being there when I walk out of work, or out of my apartment, or out of the coffee shop?” she asked.
“That’s just him showing that he cares,” Quaid replied. “Hi, I’m Quaid.”
He offered his hand to her, and she took it. “Hollis.”
“I know,” he grinned. “I was the one to give him the paper in the beginning stating you had the restraining order.”
Her lips thinned, and I laughed, pulling her into my side. “Come on. Let’s go eat.”
“I’m still working on the bread,” Dad said as we entered the kitchen. “But you’re more than welcome to start on the salads.”
“Salad sucks,” Auden replied as he came into the room behind me. “And don’t worry, Hollis. Quincy isn’t as squeaky clean as he’d like you to believe. There was one time that he got arrested for public indecency when he got caught fucking Madilyn Monroe in the middle of the soccer fields after the park was supposed to be closed.”