‘After that idiot was shouting at her because of her allergy,’ Max said, clearly wondering why he was having to explain it when Quinn had been the one to come and pick her up.
‘Oh yeah, she’s fine,’ Quinn said.
‘Dating is a minefield, there don’t seem to be any normal men out there, apart from me and you. Which begs the question, why are you letting her go out with these weirdos?’
‘Let her? Since when am I in charge of who she dates? She has to decide that for herself.’
‘I meant, you’ve been in love with her for what, three, four years now. You should be the one to date her not these losers.’
Quinn sighed. He’d never told anyone about his feelings for Alex, least of all his family in case they thought he was being disloyal to his brother. But he guessed he must have been kind of obvious about it.
‘That has to be her choice too,’ he said. ‘And right now, after everything she went through with Liam, she’s not ready for another relationship.’
Max frowned. ‘Was he up to his old ways with her too? I kind of thought he had sorted his life out when I heard at the funeral that he’d got married.’
‘I thought that too and for a while that was true, they were happy. But then he fell off the wagon and she bore the brunt of it for eighteen months before he died.’
‘Oh crap, I didn’t know,’ Max said, his eyes wide. ‘I mean, I suspected something like that had happened with the way he died but I didn’t realise she’d lived with that for a while.’
‘I know, me neither. She never left him because she wanted to help him and now she wears the scars like barbed wire round her heart.’
Max shook his head. ‘Then she definitely doesn’t need to be dating idiots.’
‘Fortunately, I don’t think she’ll be dating anyone for a while.’
Cleo walked up then, placing a tray of freshly made mince pies into the display cabinet. ‘Are you talking about Alex? Max told me what happened the other night at Alberto’s, poor love. But she can’t give up on love because of two bad dates.’
‘I think it’s a bit more than that,’ Quinn said, wishing he hadn’t been drawn on talking about Alex’s private business.
‘She could double date with me,’ Cleo said. ‘Then we can help each other weed out the bad eggs.’
‘You’re dating?’ Max said. ‘You said you never wanted to date another man ever again.’
‘Well that was because my last boyfriend was acheating scumbag. But while I don’t really want to go down the relationship route right now, I could date to support Alex and to give me a chance to see the calibre of men who are out there.’
‘Well, I could be your plus one,’ Max said. ‘And we can both go along and help Alex. That way, I can eject any weirdos and you don’t have to date any of them yourself.’
Quinn suppressed a smirk. If it was obvious that he’d been transparent about his feelings towards Alex, then it was equally obvious that Max had been in love with Cleo for a while. Well, obvious to everyone except Cleo.
‘I guess that could work,’ Cleo shrugged.
Although that didn’t work for Quinn. He knew that what he had with Alex was a very casual arrangement and she’d been very clear there were no strings, but the thought of her lying in his bed after they’d made love and then getting up to date someone else made him feel sick. Fortunately, she had sort of promised him their no-strings-attached arrangement was exclusive, which he knew was a contradiction in terms.
But that wasn’t something he could discuss with Max and Cleo.
‘I don’t think we should push Alex into dating,’ Quinn tried. ‘She has to be ready for that.’
‘I think she needs some help to get back on the horse,’ Cleo insisted.
Quinn sighed, knowing he was fighting a losing battle.
‘You know, I’m something of a matchmaker,’ Cleowent on. ‘I have a knack for finding the right people for each other. Two couples I’ve set up on blind dates are now happily married. I bet I could find the perfect person for her. Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.’
Two happily married couples didn’t seem like the extensive track record Cleo was making it out to be, so Quinn wasn’t exactly worried about some big romantic success story, but it was a little frustrating that he couldn’t just tell them that he and Alex were sort of seeing each other – although technically he couldn’t even call it that.
He paid for his order and then walked the short distance to Alex’s house. There was quite a thick layer of snow on the ground this morning and although it wasn’t coming down heavily like it had been the night before, it was still falling gently, adding to the snow that had already fallen.
He could see her in the kitchen as he approached. He knocked softly on the door and let himself in. Her smile at seeing him lit up her whole face and that made him feel warm inside.
