Good summer car.
“Anyone using the Boss?” I broach, chills spreading up my arms and my blood racing already.
He purses his lips, his baby still very close to his heart. Then, he opens a container on the wall and tosses a pair of keys at me. “Don’t fuck it up,” he grumbles.
I smile. “Thanks.”
I start to leave, but I need to say something.
“Noah’s not a bad kid,” I start.
He and I didn’t talk much last night—just had a couple beers.
Well, I had four, actually.
I have every confidence he’s a good friend to Dylan and Hunter.
Jared nods, bending over to pick up a socket set laying next to the tire of a Corvette. “If I can keep him from getting any girls into trouble for the next few years, he’ll be great,” he tells me. “Unfortunately, he’s more than his father and I can handle sometimes. He’s got a mind of his own.”
“So, he fits in then.”
Jared smiles.
Yeah, Noah is a good kid. That doesn’t mean he’s a man, though.
But at least he’s not a criminal.
“Farrow,” I continue, “isa problem.”
“Caught that in your short time here?” He looks over at me, amusement in his eyes. “Don’t worry. Madoc and I have our attention on it. Unfortunately, Dylan and Hunter adore him and they, too, have minds of their own.”
“I meant in regards to Quinn,” I point out.
He stops, his smile gone as he sets the case down on a toolbox.
I go for it before he has a chance to panic. “You know girls like her as well as I do, Jared. Kind, trusting, generous—”
“Naïve?”
I smile softly. “Pure of heart,” I say, instead. I move in and keep going. “It’s normal—and necessary—to make mistakes and fall in love with the wrong people, so you can fall out of love and learn the lessons, but those two guys… They can fuck up her life. It’s all guys like that are good for at their age.”
There, I said it. I don’t hate Noah and Farrow, but Quinn is not cutting her teeth on them.
Jared heaves a sigh, looking everywhere but at me. “Fuck.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I worry moreabout Quinn because she’s not resilient. But that’s not her fault. It’s mine. And Madoc’s and Jax’s and her father’s.” He looks at me. “We paved every step she walked.”
I know. And now she doesn’t have any street smarts, but what were they supposed to do? Not look out for her?
“I’ll be around for a while,” I announce. “If she needs a ride or you need someone taught a lesson.”
He chuckles but looks weary. Reaching out, he shakes my hand. “I think I’m gonna like you as a grown-up.”
Good, because his sister doesn’t.
Before I have a chance to take my keys and leave, someone rushes through the front door.
“Jared,” Jason, Quinn’s dad, bursts out. “Thank God.”
I move aside so he can get to his stepson, but Mr. Caruthers doesn’t come any farther than peeking his head inside the door.
