We can break the cycle of feeling there’s no one, feeling there’s only hand me down parents who maybe get sick of us, or only have more foster kids for the welfare checks. That was Randy and me, that was our childhood. He did everything he could to make sure Chelle didn’t get the same treatment though, and he aced it.
I owe Randy a lot, but most of all, I owe him for bringing up Chelle, for bringing her to me. So we could find each other.
Now. We’ll have a real family, and I want Randy to be a part of that too. I just need to give him time to get used to the idea, I guess.
“We can spend today moving if you want?” I suggest and laugh out loud as I watch Chelle’s face fall.
“I mean move our stuff from upstairs, down to here.” I comfort her.
“Then we can do whatever you want, we can walk on the beach, just hang out… try out the bed.” I suggest, amazed by my own stamina with Chelle.
I feel like I’m nineteen again, like I could work all day and fuck all night and still have change over at the end.
She makes me feel incredible, the whole place just looks better, brighter and fresher because she’s in it. I can’t wait to have us staying here full time.
“I will need to get my car,” she says, and I know what’s coming straight after that. The one thing we’ve both put off, but why should it interfere with our own happiness?
“You can follow me back,” I tell her, “I’d prefer to be up front.”
“I can drive a car, Quinn,” she chides me, rolling her eyes but I know what’s bugging her before she even apologizes for being so short.
“We can go get some of your stuff, maybe see your dad at the same time, Chelle?” I suggest, feeling a sting as I hear myself even saying the words.
“It needs to be done, and I don’t want to leave Randy… your dad, hanging.” I tell her, which is the truth.
It hurts me a little, because if it wasn’t for Chelle being Randy’s daughter, and me knowing how mad it’s gonna make him when he finds out, he’s the one person I’d be dying to tell. That I’d finally found not only love, but the woman of my dreams too.
“You know, Quinn? I’ve been thinking,” she says, looking out again over the bay from the window. I can see some dark clouds rolling in, darkening the room as she speaks as they seem to swallow up the sun.
“It’s not really any of my dad’s business who I… well, y’know. Is it?”
I frown a nod, then shrug, “I know, Chelle, but…”
I know she’s right, but I also know her dad. It’ll mean the end of our friendship, potentially. I know that much. Randy’s so fixed in his ways and as stubborn as a mule. He’s not gonna leap for joy when he finds out I’ve claimed Chelle as my own, whether I tell him, she tells him or he hears it from anybody else.
“Like we kinda decided, Chelle. I won’t lie to him, and I know you don’t want to either.”
We press our heads together, catching the sound of the growing surf outside over the hum of the growing wind through the balcony, through the static emptiness of the condo.
“I love you Quinn, no matter what,” she says.
“And I love you,” I choke, surprised by my the emotion, but it’s the truth. I get so crazy about wanting to protect her, only because I love her so much. More than anything, and I’ll sacrifice whatever I have to do to keep her. To keep us.
We kiss, but it’s like when we come together. It’s like everything disappears when we touch, kiss and climax now. Our whole world is us and it’s the only world I want to live in anymore.
“So which is it going to be?” I ask her, but I hear a car horn sounding from outside, distracting me for a second.
I’m going to ask Chelle if she thinks we should get it over with, go get her car and see if we can sit down and have a talk with Randy, but there’s that horn blasting again.
Even from all the way up here I can hear it.
I move over to the window, but have to go outside onto the balcony to see down into the lot out the front of the building.
The wind’s picked up and sends a chilly blast into the whole condo as I open the sliding door, even just enough to squeeze through. Chelle’s not too far behind me either.
“Ah Jesus,” I murmur, feeling my whole body tense up, my hands making fists, but from sheer frustration this time.
I groan as Chelle joins me, clutching me by my side and we both look down.
“Fuck,” is all she can say, quickly turning and going back inside, before he sees her. Before he sees us.
But I’m not going anywhere. I need a minute to collect myself.
It’s like I watch our whole life together in fast forward in my mind, seeing him appear seemingly from nowhere.
I don’t like surprises, but at least I know he can’t get in without my say so.
Randy.
He’s turned up, god only knows how he found us and he’s driving Chelle’s car, which looks like it’s full of her stuff too.
At least he’s helping us to move… sort of…
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Chelle
“Let me go down to him, Quinn. Give us a minute, okay,” I tell him. I’m not asking.
Yeah, Quinn and my dad have a long history, they’re best friends. But Randy’s my dad. My foster dad, but to me he’s my dad. Like Quinn’s my man now, my dad’s the only one I have, and I love them both but for a very different reason.
“He’s my dad and I need to go talk to him,” I tell him again, speaking over his growls of disapproval as I get dressed.
“There’s a button by the front doors,” he says, relaxing his snarl to actual words as he holds out his hands for mine.
“I’ll be alright, Quinn. Just give us some time, okay?” he nods and walks me to the door.
“I’ll get changes too, don’t be long.” He tells me and gives me a soft peck on the lips as I feel myself shaking again, but for a different reason this time.
The elevator door opens and I can see my dad pacing out front of the huge glass sliding doors to the building. He’s got his phone out, trying to call me or Quinn, I assume.
I stop for a second, looking at the man before he even sees me. I can see he’s upset, but he’s not dangerously mad. He’s not acting crazy. I see a man who’s concerned, hurt and worried more than anything for his daughter, for me.
I’d primed myself for a confrontation, a shouting match or worse but once I press the big red button by the sliding doors and his eyes meet mine, I feel a flood of emotions for my dad, and they’re all good ones.
“Oh daddy!” I cry, rushing into his arms, which he holds open for me, tears starting in his own eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him, looking at my car behind him, filled with what looks like everything I’ve ever owned.
“Aww, Chelle…” he sniffs, “Just tell me you’re alright. Just tell me you’re safe. I was so worried… nobody would answer my calls and I thought… I guess I dunno what I thought anymore…. I thought maybe you didn’t love me… that you’d left because of me…”
I feel my own heart go, I let out a croak of disbelief, and feel my own tears getting the better of me.
“No, dad, oh… no! Don’t even say that.”
We hold onto each other for a long time, saying most of what needs to be said without words and once I feel dad settling down, I have to half-cry, half-laugh.
“Are you throwing me out?” I ask, looking again at my car parked behind him, I can see half our apartment in there.
“I’m sorry, Chelle. I got mad, right after I felt my heart break… I didn’t know what to think, my best friend and my baby girl… suddenly ignoring me and taking off at that reunion… I heard all kinds of things from a couple of people who were there, it killed me to hear it.”
Cindy Sanders, I’ll bet…
“That Brad fella, the one who works for-” but he stops short. I notice my dad can’t, or won’t even mention Quinn’s name. He tenses up and his eyes narrow, his tears dryi
ng up instantly, replaced with a darker look. An angry look I know isn’t meant for me.
“Daddy? Listen to me… We need to sit down and have a talk, but you’ve had a long night and a long drive… let’s just…”
“Where is he,” he snarls, his lip turning up and his eyes glazing over as he removes himself from our hug and literally positions me to one side so he can get past me.
"Tell me where he is, Chelle. I need to sort this out, once and for all.”
“Dad, stop!” I command him and for once I think he actually listens, he turns to look back at me, turning his whole body, to listen.
“I love Quincy Quinn Dad. He didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to… He’s your best friend and he’s hurting. He wanted to share the happiness we’ve found with only one other person… you. But guess what? He couldn’t. Why? Because he knew this is how you’d act.”
I shudder as I finish speaking, it’s as if my voice has come from someplace else, far away or from up above. Loud, firm and full of the truth.
“Did he tell you to say that?” Dad asks, his shoulders sinking a little before he puffs himself back up again, pretending he’s mad but I can see he’s really just as hurt as Quinn is, hurt I’m the one piece of good news they couldn’t share together, not in the way friends would.
“C’mon, dad. Do you really think he would? And even if he did, do you really think I’d say that, would I tell you something like that if it wasn’t true?”
He humphs, looking like his mind’s answering a whole reel of questions he’s been asking himself for nearly a whole day and a night.
He puffs out a long breath of air from his cheeks, shaking his head from side to side.
“I don’t need to know the details, Chelle… it’s killing me inside as it is, but just tell me this is what you want. Tell me you’re happy right now,” he says, looking at me earnestly, registering that I’m not dancing around singing about how perfect Quinn is, about how perfect everything will be with us, even though that’s how I feel.
“Let me go up to him, Chelle. Give me that much. I want to have it out with the man who stole my daughter. It’s my right as a father to have him tell me face to face, isn’t it?”
I feel a knot of anxiety in my stomach, but I know I asked something similar of Quinn just now, telling him to let me go down to see my dad. I have to return the favor, and I know Quinn would want some alone time with his lifelong friend too, whatever the outcome for them both.
I just hope they don’t hurt each other, or make me want to choose a side.
Because I’d choose both, I can’t have one and not the other in my life, but if it comes down to losing one, I know I’ll choose Quinn.
He’s my man and I’m his woman now.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Q uinn
I know he’s coming up alone, I can feel it. I want to go down, only to make sure Chelle’s not down there alone, and to make sure she doesn’t wander off, but I know too that she’ll stay close by. I know she will, even just for me.
The front door’s open and I hear the elevator. A few seconds later he’s in the doorway of the upstairs penthouse. I knew he’d come up here because I knew he’d know it’s where I’d take anyone I wanted to spend the night with.
He looks like hell. Like he hasn’t slept, like he’s been mad, sad and a worried dad all in one night.
I don’t feel bad though. This is the moment, this is the payment due for the gift of Chelle in my life and I’m ready to cover it, whatever it takes.
I’m standing in the hallway, near the entrance to the lounge. I can hear the wind again, it’s starting to howl through the building now, the waves from the beach I can hear still too.
“Come in,” I tell him, Randy. My oldest friend. My brother. I never thought I’d feel like I had to think about what to say to him, not once ever in our whole life.
He steps inside, frowning with a degree of approval as he takes in the interior, then the view as he looks past me to one of the balconies. Even though the weather’s turning, the view is still spectacular.
His gaze turns to mine briefly, he looks me up and down and I know it's coming. I don’t even tense up or brace for it. It’s the least I owe him, and he can have it. He can have a thousand if he wants.
I feel his hand as it hits my face, but it’s open, it’s not a punch. I was expecting a decent swing. The type I know he’s capable of. The kind we developed together as boys, learning to box, then later with other martial arts. But it’s an anti-hit.
I’m not insulted, I’m actually a little proud of my oldest friend.
“That's it?” I ask him, fully expecting him to launch a major assault, vent some of the rage, the disappointment I know he’s feeling.
“That’s it.” He says slowly, “Just a slap. For not calling me. For not picking up… for not thinking you could come to me, with anything, even this…”
He breaks off, his voice shaking with emotion, which he reels in like a pro.
“I’ve got two in my family, Quinn. My daughter is number one. She’s my world, my baby girl. You know that,” he growls, looking at his feet, fighting the tears again, forcing himself to stay true, to look me in the eye.
Man to man.
“The other? That’s you, Quinn. Always has been, remember? No matter how many damned foster parents and homes we went through, it was always us. Our own family, just the two of us…”
I feel the sting of nostalgia, I know exactly what he means because I feel it too.
“How can I tell you, Randy? How can I say it?” I ask him, but he knows there’s no real answer.
“You could’ve just called is all. You could’ve just said you were taking Chelle home, I dunno… something. But leaving me to worry all night, to imagine the worst. I was worried for both of you, I was ringing hospitals at three a.m. for Christ sakes, hoping you both hadn’t been killed in a goddamned car crash.”
The weight of his feelings gets to me. I know I can’t be accountable for a father’s worry or a friend’s concern, but I can bear a brother’s grief. I can carry it with him, not for him.
“I’m sorry.” I tell him, right to his face, looking right in his eyes. “I love Chelle and I know she loves me too. I’ve claimed her as my own, Randy. She’s my woman now. I know you’ll have to get used to that, but I’d like you… I’d like more than anything to include you in the family we’re gonna make. A real family… not just a foster one. Our own kids, our own place…”
He looks away, nodding. He’s not bitter or mad. But I know he’s hurt. Just the hurt a father feels when his little girls is all grown up. The hurt a man feels when he finds himself alone in the world again after he’s told himself for his child’s lifetime that they have it all together to share, forever.
His forever is mine now. Chelle belongs to me. We belong to each other.
“Now!” I command him, “I want you to come at me and hit me properly, don’t slap me like a damned child. If you wanna break my nose, then come on over here and break my fuckin-”
He breaks my nose, and three ribs. He spares my teeth and I thank him for that quietly.
“That’s better,” I growl, holding my side and trying to breathe. Randy’s pumping his hand open and closed, which he then offers to me and I’ve never been so glad to shake my friend’s hand in my whole life.
“You need a grandpa in this… family of yours?” he says, smiling between what’s left of his tears. I can tell he feels better for having hit me properly, I knew he would and I also know I’m not allowed to hit him back. That’s just how it is between us.
“Sure, we need a grandpa… and you need a lift!”
“What?” he says, looking puzzled, Chelle screaming out as she enters the room, rushing over to me, I’m smiling through a beard and mustache of my own blood, hunched over and wheezing bubbles of red.
“Unless I can interest you in a condo?” I ask him, “You drive yourself down here to punch me out, now how are you gonna get home?
” I ask him, chuckling.
“Daddy, what did you do! I told you not to…!” Chelle chides her dad. Lifting my head up as I wince, poking and prodding like any good doctor would, making me cry out like a little girl.
“Ow! That hurts. Chelle. Jesus!”
It hurts more than when Randy hit me, but it’s worth it. I know I’d take a thousand more, even if it was just for one more minute in Chelle’s arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Chelle
Wear your old prom dress that you wore to the reunion as a wedding dress they said, it’ll be fun they said.
Quinn said. Right after he proposed, right after my dad broke his nose and I didn’t care that he was bleeding and kissed him anyway.
It sealed the deal with my dad, proving to him that Quinn is indeed a man of honor and swears to look after me every day for the rest of my life. What better way to show my dad that then to marry me?
“But does it have to be in that dress?” I whine, months later as we watch the view from the penthouse. Quinn did some re-financing and had a word with the owner, he also sold the rest of the vacant condos at a premium, making for a very happy owner who sold his investment at a profit, and made us both very happy condo owners. Top two floors.
“In case we have people come stay…” Quinn always says now, and always winks at my dad when he does.
“I want to see you like I did that night, like I want to every damned night,” he growls, biting my neck and shamelessly cupping my chest, trying to fish out one of my boobs so he can have his way with me all over again.
Our wedding planning nights have always ended in what he likes to call ‘honeymoon practice’ which is fine, and will certainly speed up the baby making, but I’m trying to plan a damned wedding here, not a world record attempt at continuous single entry by the world’s most sexy man.
Quinn insists we have a traditional wedding, all except the dress. He wants me in the same lilac dress I wore at the reunion, as well as the bridesmaids, which we don’t even have. Dad volunteered for a lilac suit, just to see the look of horror on my face and I promptly pleaded with Quinn to have any other color, any other dress, but he’s stood firm on that.
Claiming His Reunion Obsession: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 162) Page 7