“Will youpleasesit down?” Quinn snapped, his low tone catching the attention of Alara and Emira, who started waving at August like they were wishing him well on his journey to the afterlife.
There was a couch on the far side of the room, so August went to it and plopped down, frowning when the girls started whispering loudly to each other.
Quinn followed and stopped in front of him, holding out his hand like he was asking for August to take it. He wasn’t speaking, and August didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad, so he quickly followed the silent order and intertwined Quinn’s fingers with his tied ones.
“This is helping?” Quinn asked, his thumb caressing over the black laces.
“A surprising amount,” August admitted, because without the restraints, he would still be lying in his gear and breathing through a pillow.
“Well, now that you’ve talked to your team and brought the girls here, do you think you can relax soIcan relax?” Quinn curled a finger under the laces and gently pulled. “I need to get the girls to sleep, and we both know that as high functioning as you are right now, you shouldn’t be pushing your luck.”
Quinn was right, which August sensed would be a running theme in his future, but he didn’t want Quinn to overdo it either.
“Just let me get the bed set up for the girls, and then I’ll pass out for a while,” said August. “I promise I won’t move after that.”
“The bed?” Quinn turned to look at the object of discussion—scrutinizing it. “You’re not taking the cot or the couch. Hell, you’ll barely fit in the bed.”
August was used to sleeping on too-small furniture. One night wouldn’t kill him.
“Don’t give me that damn look,” Quinn said, jabbing him in the chest. “Emira will take the cot, and Alara will take the couch. We’ll sleep in the bed—but mostly you because I’ll have to pace, or I’ll go crazy.”
August readied an argument, but then one of the girls pushed between them, knocking into August’s leg.
“Quinn, is Snowy your boyfriend?”
Heat stung August’s cheeks, and he dropped his head to hide his blush from the overbearing Harlow presence. It was true they weren’t exactly hiding their affection toward each other, but damn, the kids were perceptive.
“It depends on how well he listens to me while we’re here,” said Quinn.
August blinked at the floor, weighing his options. Then, once he made his decision, he squared his shoulders and lifted his head, meeting Quinn’s tired but glimmering eyes.
“I’ll take the bed.”
Chapter 37
Quinn
Quinn didn’t feel like a person over the next twenty-four hours. He wasn’t dissociating by any means, but he felt more disconnected from his emotions as the time on the clock slowly ticked away and the numbness crept in.
He was certain he would be burying Eren by the end of the week. Seeing him like that—lying in the bed with his eyes black, his head bandaged, and his face swollen didn’t paint the most positive picture. But because Eren was a fighter, he made it through the most dangerous period without having another stroke, and the swelling in his brain had come down, too.
All that was left to do was wait.
Eren could wake up the next day, or he might never wake up; it was hard to say. The doctors grew more optimistic as days passed without incident, but Quinn refused to have hope.
Hope was dangerous. He’d had hope when Esme told him about her diagnosis because he was sure that medicine had advanced enough to save her, but that’s why the wordterminalcut so deeply when she told him the disease had progressed.
No, hope didn’t belong in his vocabulary when he looked at August, who was being so fucking brave but barely holding it together. Knowing that a monster had hurt August badly enough to alter his memories made Quinn lose a lot of his faith in humanity, so what was the point of hope when men like Perry were still walking free?
The only spark of positivity he felt while he waited for Eren to live or die was when he watched August with Alara and Emira. They had been moved to a more spacious family room that could have passed for a hotel room, but it had a bed big enough to fit his giant hockey player, and a separate room for his nieces, so he wasn’t complaining.
It was further from the floor where Eren was being observed, so Quinn balanced his time between caring for the girls and receiving updates on their father. He had been worried that leaving August alone with tworambunctious children would be too much, but they were surprisingly well-behaved once Quinn explained that August was hurt.
Quinn often found the three of them sitting on the couch watching hockey or cartoons when he returned from his pacing. August would let the girls do anything to him to keep them entertained while Quinn was gone, from painting his nails to smearing lipstick on his face.
August was a rock for him when it came to the girls—to everything, really. Without him, Quinn would have had to rely on Una, who had her own family she needed to care for. It would have meant fewer visits with Eren and more stress for Alara and Emira, who were already on edge about not seeing their father for days.
On a particularly bad morning, when August had woken up screaming from a nightmare, and the twins threw their biggest tantrum yet when Quinn refused to bring them to visit Eren, he realized he had reached the point of what he could mentally handle.
