I eyed him, curious enough about my passenger to offer up freebies. “How about I throw in counseling for free?”
“You’d do that?” he asked, his sarcasm smothering us both. “For me?”
“For you,” I confirmed. “But just so we’re clear: the psychotherapy is free. The car ride is not.”
“Ah.” He leaned back. “Got it. And thanks, but no thanks.”
“Okay. Your loss.”
He didn’t respond, and we drove in silence for a minute or so… until I could stand it no more. I had to know this guy’s story, and I’d payhimif it meant satisfying my curiosity. “Hear me out on the whole psychotherapy thing. I happen to have valuable experience when it comes to dealing with biologically related scene stealers.”
He grinned, glancing my way. “You don’t say?”
“I do say.”
Quinn shifted in his seat. “Okay, then. Who?”
“You first.”
I didn’t think he’d actually answer but he was surprisingly quick with his reply. “My brother.”
I followed with my own admission. “My sister.”
He nodded, and an understanding passed between us: two castaways floating aimlessly in a sea of greatness.
“So, what’s your story?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I’m the result of a desktop dalliance.”
“A what?”
“Exactly as it sounds, Quinn. My father did the secretary on top of his drafting table and nine months later…” I displayed jazz hands to showcase my unplanned arrival. “Hello.”
His eyes rounded. “Oh, shit…”
“Yep. Lucky me. Think about it. Had my father kept his moneymaker in his pants and not cheated on his wife with the pretty young secretary, I’d have been erased from history like Marty McFly.”
Quinn laughed, keeping his curious eyes on me. “Damn, I just have abandonment issues, but you—you’re fucked up, girl.”
I performed a little in-car curtsy as I laughed along with him. What did it say about me that I wasn’t even the slightest bit offended?
“So, what happened to your parents?” he asked, still gripped by the cheating scandal that had created me. “Did your dad get caught?”
“He’s a man,” I replied, as if that was enough to guide Quinn along in his quest for answers. “What do you think?”
“I would think he paid dearly.”
I turned away from his prying eyes and winced. “And you’d be right.”
Obviously highly engaged in my tale of woe, Quinn asked, “Then what?”
“Then—nothing.” I shrugged. “Everyone lived happily ever after. The end.”
Quinn eyed me knowingly before leaning back in his seat and gripping the back headrest. With great appreciation for his manly form, I watched him stretch out his long body.
“Yeah, no way is your story so straightforward.”
“Oh, really?” I asked. “Why not?”
