Chapter Twenty-Six
Quinton
Monday morning Quinton dragged himself into his office. Sunday had been a pathetic day spent moping around the house and eating garbage. He paid the price this morning when his trainer showed up at six to kick his butt. After grudging through a workout, he showered and decided to head to work.
He’d just entered his office when Ben hustled in. “I need your help.”
“What?” Anything to get his mind off of Ginny.
“I’m supposed to speak to the physics department at Stanford this afternoon, and I totally forgot about it. I need you to come, bring some of your techy impressive stuff, and fill in the gaps.”
He grabbed his laptop and a pad of paper. “We’ll brainstorm on the way.” His brother’s mistake was his salvation.
Ben was two steps ahead of him. “I’ve got the plane ready.” Ben had a plane at the private airport just beyond their property. The Cove had all the amenities a billionaire could ask for, and most billionaires kept smaller planes on site.
Gibbs delivered them to the plane’s steps, and they were aboard and trundling down the runway the second Quinn buckled his seat belt.
“How late are you?” Quinn asked as the ground disappeared from view at an alarming rate. It was a good thing he had a stomach tried and tested by roller coasters, or he wouldn’t have been able to handle the level of accent.
“Flight time is estimated at two hours and fifteen minutes. We’ll be late enough we’re going to have to run when we get there.”
Quinn opened his laptop and sifted through the files. “We can start with the preliminary designs for The Magic Carpet, explaining why they didn’t work and how we changed them.” The Magic Carpet had been operational for over five years.
“That’s good. Many of them would have ridden it.”
They worked up an outline, Quinton taking the lead out of desperation. If he slowed down for even a minute, the memory of holding Ginny would catch up to him. If it did, he’d fall to pieces. Nothing in the world had hit him as hard as saying goodbye. Not even his dad’s betrayal. His dad hadn’t called him back, and when Quinn tried to call again, he was blocked. Any chance they had at salvaging their relationship was lost now. Stevenson had told the other bidder to take a hike. From what they’d been able to gather, Dad had taken off with the down payment for his subterfuge and disappeared. Quinn hoped he never surfaced.
There was a lot going on in his life, and for just a while, he wanted to ignore it.
They landed, and a car was waiting to take them to campus. Quinn kept his eyes on the computer, not wanting to trigger thoughts of his time here with Ginny. He was well aware of the fact that he was going into the lion’s den of memories, but he had the presentation to keep his mind focused. Engineering and physics took up his whole brain. He could do this.
The car pulled in front of a building, and Quinn groaned. “The library?”
“Come on!” Ben urged. “Third floor.” He sprinted from the car.
Not wanting to be here, but not wanting to be alone while on campus more, Quinn followed. They earned stern looks from the librarians at the check-in desk because of their hurried and loud entrance.
The stairs loomed ahead of them. Quinn was faster, fueled by anxiety. Ben’s steps fell in with the background noise of students typing and muffled footsteps. He rounded the second-floor landing and headed for the third, hoping the professors had been able to stall.
When he got to the top, his chest heaving, he stilled. The lights were off. “Hello?” he whispered.
“Back here,” came a whispered reply.
There was a light on, on the other side of a bookshelf. They must be looking at something on a screen. Perhaps Ben had sent some videos ahead of them. Quinn went to the side of the bookshelf, trying not to interrupt but wanting the professor to know they’d arrived.
Instead of a room full of eager physics students, he found Ginny sitting on an old wooden table, her feet on the chair in front of her. “Hey.”
Quinn flipped around to see Ben at the top of the steps. He lifted a hand, letting Quinn know this was the plan all along. He nodded for Quinn to move in before turning to go back down the steps.
Quinn swallowed his anger and faced Ginny.
She lifted her chin, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. His heart cracked and shrank and called him nasty names. She wiped at her eyes. “You were right, you know. I was a different person when I was here.”
That didn’t help his heart mend. In fact, it cracked a little wider. “I don’t want to be right. I want things the way I imagined them.”
She continued to wipe under her eyes, the tears coming harder and faster. “Me too.”
He dropped his bag by the shelf, unable to let her sit there and cry and not put his arm around her. He sat next to her on the table, and it creaked under his added weight.
