“I know.”
I heard the heaviness in his own voice, and I knew he was having his own struggles with her decision.
“She calledyouthat day. Not me.”
Jett straightened slightly beside me as I remained with my stare on the stars. “She did. I’m not defending her, but given what wenow know, she must have thought I would be the easiest one to tell.”
Shaking my head, I turned to look at him. “It’s always you she goes to first.”
Jett met my stare, and I didn’t need to see the challenge in his eyes, daring me to argue with him. “She’s my best friend, I tell her everything, and until that day in the hospital, I would have said the same about her.”
“I’m your brother.”
“I’m aware.” His voice was dry, and even though I couldn’t see him clearly, I knew the eyebrow would be raised.
“She didn’t tell me.”
“What are you angrier about?” he asked me, and I looked at him, not understanding. “Is it because she told me tonight, are you pissed that she called me from the hospital, are you angry she was pregnant in the first place, or are you mad she never told you until she had no choice but to tell us both?”
I thought about it. “All of it.”
I heard his quiet scoff. “Or should you be angry that the girls we’ve seen on those delivery beds could have been her? That she was so scared of our reaction, she panicked and thought she couldn’t tell anyone, not even me.”
“We let her down?” I asked skeptically.
“We failed her, and I think we should remember that. We failed her in every way possible, and I don’t think it’syouwho should be telling Quinn to stay away from us,” he finished quietly, noticing my wince when he said her name.
“Maybe you’re right.” I shrugged. “But that doesn’t change that I feel like this and that I could still happily wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze.”
Jett gave a humorless laugh. “I don’t need to know your kinks, little brother,” he said quietly as he nudged me with his shoulder.
“Did she tell you why she never told me?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t make me fuck up my other hand, Jett,” I warned.
“She said she saw you in Dustin’s pool house with someone else, she left for the family skiing weekend, and when she came back, you were in a relationship.”
“What the fuck is she talking about?” I asked in confusion. “Who?”
Jett looked at his boots. “I think it was one of Onyx’s friends.”
And I remembered. Closing my eyes in resignation, I let out a long sigh.
“I didn’t fuck her,” I growled, pushing myself off the car angrily. “I told her to get out. I was trying to sleep. I was drunk.”
We’d all been at Dustin’s end-of-school party that he held before graduation. Quinn and I had been with each other a few days before, but she had been more aloof and distant than usual after it, and I’d given her the space she seemed to want. I’d gotten wasted at the party, relieved school was over, and I had a few weeks to enjoy summer before training started for college football.
After graduation, Quinn was so scarce, I hardly saw her at all, and then Jett came home one day and told Ash and me that he’d spent the day with her in the hospital and was taking her to the cabin. Quinn had miscarried, and he said she was acting off. On top of everything, he said she was too jumpy, as if she was scared of someone.
Quinn Lawrence had never been scared in her life, no matter what names I called her.
I’d waited until Ash had asked his questions and Jett had told him what he knew. He looked devastated, as did Ash. But I kept it all inside. Ash asked how many weeks she had been pregnant, but Jett didn’t know — she hadn’t answered him when he had asked her.
I thought she’d fucked someone else.
I thought it was someone else’s kid.
