“No, I can hear you,” Quinn says, and I watch the boys smile down at her as she listens to them over her ear piece.
“We have mystery.” Lance moves in, lowering his voice. “Every appetite can be satiated in a city, and no one cares. A small town is where you’re afraid to get caught. That’s where the fun is. Who’s having an affair with who? Who’s the secret love-child of the police chief?”
Who’s hiding a body…?
Yeah, I get the picture. I shake off the aggravation weighing on my shoulders.
“It’s the relationships in a small town that make everything messy…” he trails off.
“Thank you,” Quinn says, and I glance over, watching Van der Berg take the bar as she sits up.
“It’s the people you see every day that make your secrets more dangerous,” Lance tells me. “And more worthwhile.”
An earbud tumbles to the floor. Quinn sees it but continues her set.
I release my bar, replying, “Maybe I would’ve thought so before I came back and saw how developed the town is now.”
It’s not quiet anymore.
Bending down, I swipe up the ear piece and blow off any dirt or dust.
Approaching, I gently take Quinn’s ear and slide it back in. My fingers tremble at the feel of her soft skin and the strands of hair caught behind her lobe. I don’t touch too hard, almost like she’s fine china.
“The Loop used to be wet and dirty,” I tell Lance as I ignore the boys and feel Quinn go still as she clutches the bars in her hands. “Illegal and dangerous. What made it fun was that we were doing something we weren’t supposed to.”
She lifts her eyes to mine, the young men with her like statues in the corner of my eye. I can feel them watching us, and I hold her for another second—and then another—amplifying every moment she doesn’t shove me away, showing them that she knows me. Showing her that I’m still the closest man to her outside of blood.
“But the more the town grows, the more people fear losing what they have. The mystery dissipates in favor of shared preservation.”
Backing away, I have a seat at the machine next to her and start pumping, despite my heart racing more as the seconds pass. Lance takes the rope on my other side and pulls down again and again, exercising his triceps.
I don’t check Quinn, breathing slowly and calmly as if nothing happened.
“So,” I ask Lance, swallowing. “Am I going to meet your wife?”
Quinn resumes her arm curls, and I exhale slowly.
“Sure.” He nods. “When you get one for yourself. I’m not letting her around you when you’re unattached.”
I force a laugh, trying to act like Quinn isn’t the only thing I’m aware of. “Like I would ever…” I joke.
“But she might.”
I shake my head. “Bring her on Saturday. The more the merrier to the Caruthers.”
I didn’t want a party. But I can give Madoc one night.
“Willshebe there?” he murmurs in a low voice, gesturing to Quinn.
I was hoping he wouldn’t notice her or how she was the same young woman who worked out next to us last night.
Gripping the bar, I climb off the shoulder press, keeping my voice down, “As she’s Madoc’s sister, I’m sureshe will be.”
He rises too, and lingers close as I take over his machine. “Want me to make sure they’re not?” he teases.
Van der Berg puts on a show for Quinn, curling his biceps as he lifts a bar. The other one leans into her ear, whispering something from behind. A glimmer of amusement curves the edges of her mouth.
I release the handle, the sound of the weights clanging against each other making the others in the room startle.
