Aaron snorted.
Jesus. They were a bunch of petulant goddamnchildren.
Quinn shot him a look. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothin’,” Aaron said. “Except that the only one of us under this roof who isn’t acting like a spoiled brat is theactual child.”
Lennox, as though he’d sensed he was being talked about, bounced down the stairs into the open living area of the house’s ground floor. “Oh, bacon!”
He climbed up onto a stool next to Aaron at the breakfast bar, and grinned when Aaron tousled his hair.
Lennox was a great kid. The best parts of Charlie and Quinn put together, with something that was uniquely him as well: he was a happy kid, and Aaron didn’t remember either Charlie or Quinn being particularly happy. Not surprising, given the families they came from. But Charlie had done a great job with Lennox. He was sure of himself, because he’d always had Charlie to support him. Their weird little pseudo-family might have thrown any other kid, but Lennox hadn’t seemed bothered, even when Charlie had sat him down—Quinn almost vibrating out of his skin beside her—and explained that Quinn was his biological father.
“Oh!” Lennox had said, forehead creasing for a moment. Then he’d shrugged. “Okay.”
He’d taken the revelation on the chin.
Quinn, Aaron suspected, was still struggling with what it meant. He got extra prickly if Charlie even mentioned going back to Spruce Creek, and Aaron knew that had a lot to do with Lennox. Quinn might not have been Lennox’s father in any way that counted up until now, but it was clear he wanted some kind of relationship going forward. It was also clear that Charlie, who had been fiercely independent for years, was struggling with giving over any control of either her life, or her son’s. She’d almost bitten Aaron’s head off the week they’d arrived at the house, for suggesting he and Quinn could cover the rent for a while.
Quinn’s phone buzzed, and he tugged it out of his sling and answered it. “Byrne.”
Aaron met Charlie’s gaze. The fact that Quinn hadn’t used the surname MacGregor in a decade was still something they were both getting used to.
“Yeah, hold on, Day,” Quinn said. He lowered the phone, and nodded toward the back porch. “I’m gonna take this outside.”
He slid the thick glass door open and stepped onto the porch.
Cool air blew in from the woods that surrounded the house.
The place was great. It needed a little work, and the landlord had seemed a bit flakey, but Aaron had got him to agree to a reduction in rent if he and Quinn did some maintenance around the place and cleared the yard when it needed it. The landlord had also mentioned he’d tried to sell the place, but put it up as a rental when he got no takers. So maybe if the place worked out—iftheyworked out—that was a discussion they could revisit in the future. If they made it through these first few weeks without killing each other, at least.
Charlie set a plate of bacon and eggs down in front of Aaron, then one for Lennox. Then she got her own, and turned the heat down on the burner so that Quinn’s didn’t burn.
Out on the patio, Quinn was pacing back and forth as he talked.
They ate in silence for a while.
Charlie sighed. “It’s a lot to adjust to.”
“It is,” Aaron agreed.
Charlie narrowed her eyes at him as though she was searching for sarcasm. Then her expression softened and she shook her head, her red hair catching the light. “But I’m trying, I promise.”
“Hey, I know you are. Listen, it was a big deal, asking you to throw your lot in with us. I get that. But I think we’ve got a good chance of making this work.” He felt his chest swell as he looked at her and Lennox. “Out of everything in that town, in my childhood—you and Quinn are the only things worth keeping. Our friendship, that summer…it meant everything, Charlie, and I don’t want to throw that away without giving it a second chance.”
Charlie blinked, her eyes shining. She reached past Lennox and took Aaron’s hand. “Me too, Aaron. Me too.”
* * * *
They drove into town after breakfast. White Deer Lake was only a small town, barely large enough for the police station that sat on its main street.
“You want us to wait for you?” Aaron asked as they dropped Quinn in the parking lot.
“Nah.” Quinn shook his head. “Day’s fixed it up so I can use a video link from here, and at least I don’t have to go all the way back to Nevada to do it, but it might take a while. You guys go on. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
There were no easy answers, no quick wraps up. The fallout of what had happened in Spruce Creek might last for months yet, maybe even longer. But that was okay. They were safe now, and they were together. Everything else, they could deal with.
* * * *
