by Amy Brent
Hell, I’d practically made an art of skimming through life. Not making waves. Not leaving an impression when I packed up and moved on. It was easier that way. No mess. I didn’t let myself think about just how much I like the way Quinn loved life. The way she went all or nothing. The way she was making me break my own rules. Rules that I had lived by so long they were practically second nature.
Don’t get involved. Don’t get in too deep. And sure as fuck never stay with the same girl more than a few days. Three days was my max. There had been a few times I’d broken that rule before and it had never ended well. Every time I would swear to myself that I’d learned my lesson. That lesson seemed far away and unimportant at that moment.
"Sorry about the pancakes, sunshine," I said with the nod at her plate. I needed to say something to dislodge the track of my wayward thoughts. Quinn glanced up at me from across the small kitchen table and the grin she gave me was so sweet and so sinful all at the same time I wanted to have her all over again.
She took a blissful sip of coffee before answering slowly, deliberately, “I’m not.”
That’s it. It’s official. There’s something about Quinn that makes me hornier than a teenager tumbling around in the hay with his first girlfriend. I already want her again.
The thought flicked through my mind and I was bare seconds from sweeping the plates to the floor and hauling her up on the table so I could feast on her instead. The strident ringing of a cell phone stopped me before I could make a move.
Quinn glanced at the caller ID for a moment before answering.
"Hey you…I know. I'm sorry I didn't call you back earlier…." I forced down another bite of pancakes, trying desperately not to look like I was eavesdropping even though my ears were perked to catch every word. As Quinn spoke, I couldn't help but notice the obvious familiarity with whoever it was on the other end of the call. It had a slick, greasy feeling sinking inside me and with a shock, I realized it was jealousy.
Me? Jealous? That’s impossible. I don’t get jealous. I never get jealous. I’ve always been the love em’ and leave em’ type. That’s my motto. I don’t do clingy and I sure as fuck don’t do relationships.
So why do you care who she’s talking to, then?
Before I could come up with a reasonable answer, Quinn was talking again.
“…I already told you, Jonah. I’ll be there. I promise. I’ll meet you there and we can talk then, okay?...Bye.” Quinn hung up the cell phone and even though I told myself I wouldn’t, I couldn’t stop the words from forming on my lips and I sure as hell couldn’t silence them.
“So, who was that? A friend?” I tried to sound as casual as possible, the whole time wondering what the hell I was even doing. Why did it matter? I didn’t know the answer to the question to that, and if I was honest with myself, that scared me.
Quinn shrugged, oblivious to my inner turmoil. Thank god for small mercies.
“It was my brother. Calling to check in on me for the hundredth time because he still thinks I’m ten years old.” She shook her head in frustration but I was too busy sighing in relief to notice. It didn’t occur to me to wonder why I’d feel relieved but then she was talking again.
“I have to go meet him out on the outskirts of town. Just found out we were left our grandfather’s property but I have no idea what sort of shape it’s in. It’s basically sat abandoned for the past twenty years.”
Her words triggered a memory, a conversation I had, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It sat there, on the tip of my tongue. Quinn spoke more about the property as I tried to work it out but then, like puzzle pieces falling into place, it all came into terrible clarity.
“Wait a minute, did you say Jonah?” Dread quickly replaced the relief that had been so short lived.
“What?”
“Jonah. When you were talking. You called your brother Jonah?”
“Yeah. That’s his name.” Quinn gave me an odd look across the kitchen table and I couldn’t blame her, “Why?”
“Jonah Moore? And that would make you…”
“Quinn Moore. Yep, that’s generally how names work.” She tilted her head to the side, examining me as if I’d suddenly grown two heads. I felt just as confused.
Quinn was Jonah’s little sister.
My best friend’s little sister.
My best friend’s little sister who he had practically raised and treated more like a daughter than a sibling. Hell, overprotective didn’t even begin to cover Jonah’s attitude.
I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do but I did know one thing. If Jonah ever found out about us, I was a dead man. Plain and simple. He would kill me.
“Um, well. I’m sure you have to go and uh, get ready. I should really…My shift at the bar starts pretty soon,” Sure, if by ‘pretty soon’ I mean two hours. But I was in full on panic mode, still trying to process this new turn of events. “I gotta get to work, so…”
“Alright,” Quinn said slowly, still staring at me oddly but at the moment, I didn’t care. I was more worried about keeping my hide intact. “I’ll see you later?”
“Sure, yeah. See you later.” I jumped to my feet, my mind racing as my more than healthy sense of self-preservation kicked in and I tossed Quinn a distracted wave as I threw on jeans and a more or less clean shirt before racing from the apartment and down the stairs to the bar. What the hell did I get myself into? And even worse, what the hell was I going to tell Jonah?
Chapter 8
Leo
I rushed behind the bar and straight to the back stock room. The shelves were stacked precariously with boxes of bottles of liquor and beer, garnishes and mixers. Distracted, I clocked in, grabbing one of the black half aprons that hung on pegs by the door and tied it around my waist. My mind was still far away, up the stairs in the apartment I'd just fled to be exact. Dread and guilt still swirled inside my gut, thinking of Jonah. I was fucked.
“What the hell are you doing here, Leo? Your shift doesn’t start for another two hours.”
I jumped at the sound of Stella’s harsh voice and turned around to face her, forcing a confident grin on my face.
"I just wanted to get an early start on inventory. I know what a stickler you are." I poured as much honey into my voice as I could manage but I could tell by the dubious look on her face that she wasn't buying it for a second.
As far as I’d gathered, Stella had been the manager of Lucky’s since it had been established, and she treated the damned thing more like a child than a bar.
“Uh huh,” She placed her hands on her ample hips as she stared him up and down, “Is it trouble or a woman?”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you trying to hide from some sort of trouble, or is it a woman?” Stella shook her head, “You know what, knowing you Leo, it’s one and the same.”
I shrugged, pasting a guilty smile on my face that I hoped looked charming, and not as sickly as it felt. Her words stung. More so because of the truth in them. But I couldn’t let her know that.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” She said, finally throwing her hands up in the air as she turned to walk back out towards the bar, “you might as well start on the inventory since you’re here. And keep it straight this time, got it? I nearly didn’t order enough whiskey after last time.”
“Believe me. That would have been a blessing.”
“What was that?”
"You got it, boss," I said, louder this time and with one last, hopefully convincing smile in her direction. Stella just shook her head once more before stomping back out front. Some women were beyond even my considerable charm, and Stella definitely fell into that limited category.
Thinking of women I could charm had my thoughts spiraling straight back to Quinn, and more specifically, her psychotically overprotective older brother’s reaction if and when he ever found out I messed with his little sister.
I had met Jonah when I'd first moved to Coral Springs a few years ago and w
e'd hit it off right away. I didn't usually care to make friends in new places. In the back of my mind I always knew that I'd be moving on, usually sooner rather than later, and after a while, it just didn't seem like the effort was worth it.
But something about Jonah had clicked. Kindred spirits or some shit. He'd told me a little bit about his sister, enough for me to figure out real quick that he didn't want me asking about her. And I'd overheard some of the other members of the close-knit town about how ‘the Moore girl' was a bit of a troublemaker and that's why she was away at school. They'd all made it sound like she really was some sort of kid. I'd assumed she was a teenager at most!
Now, to find out that the girl who’d been wrecking his bed for the past few nights was Jonah’s little sister? It was enough to shock any man. And make them damned worried for their own safety. Especially after some of the horror stories I’d heard about how Jonah had dealt with her past boyfriends.
I’m not her boyfriend, I tried to convince myself.
No, you just fucked her. That’s all. Do you really think Jonah will split hairs about that?
I shook my head but couldn't dislodge the reasoning of my own thoughts. What the fuck was I going to do? With no answer to that question, I peeked out of the window to see to the front of the bar. I had been hiding back there long enough to hopefully avoid Quinn when she came downstairs to leave.
I needed to get my story straight before I saw her again because whenever she was within a ten-foot radius of me, all my brain cells shut down and all I could think about was bending her over the nearest surface and taking her over and over again until we were both sated and exhausted.
“Damn it, man. Get a hold of yourself.” I muttered under my breath. I had to adjust my suddenly tightening body, ready at just the thought of her. After a few deep breaths, I made my way back out to the front of the bar.
Grabbing a dishrag, I went to work wiping down the glasses, shooting Stella what I hoped was a casual glance.
“Hey, Stella. You’ve lived in Coral Springs a long time, right?”
“Born and raised here, just over on third street. Why?” Stella didn’t look up from the checkbook she was going over that lay spread out on the bar in front of her.
“You’ve known Jonah for a while then? And his sister?”
“Yeah. The poor Moore kids.” She shook her head, clicking her tongue in sympathy, “Everyone knew John and Becca were addicts, not fit to have kids. But we didn’t know how bad it was until they just up and left. Abandoned their kids, dumping all their debts and shit on ‘em. It wasn’t right.”
I cocked my head, listening. I’d known that they’d had some sort of trouble growing up but Jonah didn’t like to talk about the past. Now I guess I knew why.
Stella was still speaking, “Jonah was seventeen or eighteen at the time but Quinn was only ten, the poor thing. Jonah practically raised her after that. We all saw how hard he worked for her. He gave up everything to give her a shot. He’s a good man, Jonah is. Nobody ever messed with Quinn though, that’s for damn sure.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, swallowing hard past the sudden dryness in my throat, “And why’s that?”
“Well, because Jonah’d kill ‘em, for start.” Stella snorted out a caustic laugh as she shot him a look, “Take Eli Peterson, for a start.”
“What, uh, what happened to Eli Peterson?” I forced the question out, at the same time needing and dreading the answer.
"It was a while ago. Quinn was still in high school and Eli started sniffing around her. If you ask me she encouraged the boy. What teenaged girl wouldn't be flattered by a little attention from the star quarterback, you know?"
“Uh huh. What happened, Stella?”
“Well, Eli and Quinn went out on a date to some football game. There they were, sitting in the stands and Jonah come barreling across the field and up the bleachers like an angry bull. Now, no one could say for sure if he’d pushed him or not but there was a fight and Eli took a tumble down the stairs. Ended up in the hospital. Cracked a couple ribs. Broke his leg in two places and was out for the rest of the year.”
"Jesus," I muttered under my breath.
“I mean, that’s not the only instance, but it is the first one to spring to mind.” Stella chortled to herself, “It sure kept those boys away though. Drove Quinn insane.”
“I bet it did.” I looked down at the tumbler I was wiping down in my hand but I didn’t really see it. All I could see was Jonah, furious at me messing with his sister, coming at me with a baseball bat and smashing in my kneecaps.
I can’t tell him. The thought echoed in my mind and I knew it was the truth. Jonah could never find out about what happened.
I’ll just keep it a secret. And it can’t happen again.
That last thought was quite a bit harder to swallow. Because even now, even knowing that Jonah would certainly try to skin me alive if he ever found out, I couldn’t make myself regret spending a single moment with Quinn.
Never again. It can’t happen again. I don’t know why, but that thought cut through me sharp and painful. I cleaned the glasses, my mind full of Quinn, and a heavy feeling in my chest at the thought of never kissing her again, of never seeing her smile directed at me. Damn. I truly was fucked.
***
Quinn
My hands had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel as I drove past the familiar streets of downtown Coral Springs and further. The cute shops and well-kept houses transformed into older buildings, slowly growing more rural and spread apart. Farms, dotted with industrial factories and warehouses and sometimes a farmhouse with faded and crumbling barns. Cows and horses grazing on the emerald green grass. But there was something else as well.
Jonah had said the town had changed while I'd been gone, and now I could see it. A small motel had cropped up, proclaiming the Coral Springs, the town's namesake, as a ‘must see destination!' and even a hiker's retreat with guided tours of the surrounding forest and the small waterfall that fed the springs.
It was hard to believe that people would pay good money to see the springs. Me and Jonah used to play in it as kids, sometimes finding odd coins or catching the small frogs that hopped around its banks.
One time, when I was seven or eight, I’d begged Jonah to take me out there but he’d been busy. I’d decided to go by myself. I’d been there a hundred times before and knew the way, so I packed my Barbie backpack and off I went.
It was a good thirty-minute trek the part of the springs that cut closes to the trailer park where we'd lived but to me, it had felt like an epic quest. I'd felt so brave, walking there by myself. So grown-up.
I’d played for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, not noticing until it was too late that it was darkening fast. One moment it was daylight, and the next I’d glanced up and seen nothing but darkness in the woods around me.
I remember how scared I was. How I cried because I couldn’t find my way home in the dark. So I sat there, alone and afraid, praying that my mom and dad would come find me and rescue me.
I waited. And waited. And waited. They didn’t come. A few hours later I saw the light of a flashlight getting closer and I knew. My parents had finally come to save me. The light came closer and I rushed forward. It wasn’t my parents. It was Jonah.
He had taken my hand and held it the whole way back to their trailer. I had walked inside, at least expecting a tearful reunion, for my mom and dad to fawn over me and tell me how much they missed me and how worried they had been. My parents had been passed out on the ratty couch. They hadn’t even known I was gone.
The memory cut through me and I was surprised to find myself blinking back tears as I pulled down the long, tree-lined drive that led to the main house of the property. I wasn't sad about their deaths. I couldn't be. But still, I had to wipe away several more tears, sniffling back the rest as I parked.
I would deal with the emotional fallout later. I couldn’t think about it now. I ha
d a property to look at, and a brother to calm down. Jonah had called me three more times since I’d left Leo’s apartment.
The reminder of Leo had the memory of his odd behavior rising up in my mind. He’d basically kicked me out of his place. I shook my head. Another thing I’d have to figure out later. Because Jonah was already stomping towards me a pleasant looking woman in a business suit and pumps trying to keep up behind him.
I took a deep breath before stepping out of the truck.
"You're late," Jonah said shortly and I gave him a falsely bright smile.
“So good to see you too, big brother. Me? Oh, I’m doing just fine. Thanks so much for asking. And how about you? Still dealing with that stick up your ass I see.” I softened the words with a hug that he grudgingly accepted and I could see the other lady hide a smile behind her hand, but not before I caught it. I shared a conspiratorial look with her before stepping back.
“Well, are you going to introduce me?” I asked after a moment with a pointed look at the woman still standing a few feet away and was surprised to see Jonah blush, actually blush! And stammer out a stream of words.
“This, ah, yes, this is Jenny. Jenny Camden. She is the realtor who’s handling the transfer of the property. Jenny, this is my sister, Quinn.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jenny said with a smile and humor shining in her eyes as she shook my hand before readjusting the leather-bound binder she held in her arms, “Well, are you two ready to see the place?”