“Yep. So now you see my dilemma.”
“Quinn…I…”
“I know.” I put a hand up to stop her. “There are factors in play that make it impossible for me to achieve his level of success. I get it. Look, Mom. I appreciate the pep talk, but I’ve had a rough day, and I already have to apologize to Jake. If we continue this conversation, I’ll have to apologize to you too.”
“Okay, but let me just say this, and then I’ll be quiet. Your dad and I would love to see you succeed, whether it’s by stepping over your brother or by forging your own path. We’ll be proud of you either way.”
Sure they would. I nodded, pretending to accept her naïve proclamation of parental equality, but I’d learned pretty early on that you had to go big in this family to warrant any attention at all. And in music? Forget it. In my parents’ eyes, Jake would always be the clear winner.
She grabbed my hand and squeezed, pleased with how the conversation had ended.
Right.
“I love you, hon.”
“I love you too.”
She patted my hair. “I don’t think I’ve seen you with short hair since we had to cut it off when Kyle accidentally got that toy racecar stuck in it.”
“That was absolutelynotan accident. He rolled those racecars back to wind them up and then stuck four of them in my hair.”
We laughed at the memory.
“Anyway, you look so handsome. I love being able to see your face. You’re going to have to fight the girls off.”
“I was fighting them off with long hair too.”
“That you were.” She smiled. “You’ve always been a charmer, haven’t you? I can’t believe someone hasn’t snapped you up yet.”
“That’s pending.”
Mom whipped her head up. “Pending? Who?”
“Her name is Jess.”
“Look at you smiling. How long have you known her?”
I checked my watch. “About twenty hours.”
“Twenty hours?” she whined, nudging me. “You got my hopes up. I thought she was the one.”
“She just might be yet.”
12
Quinn: The Shark
It had been a full three days since my stage exodus, and I was in complete limbo. For the first time in my life, I was on the brink of stardom, but I had no idea how to seize the moment… or even if I was legally allowed to do so. Despite being majorly pissed at me for the fight I’d yet to apologize for, Jake nevertheless sent me his lawyer, who instructed me to hang tight until he could figure out just how much trouble I was in.
So far, I’d successfully managed to keep theNext in Linehitmen from getting to me, but it was only a matter of time before Andrew Hollis bulldozed through the front gates of my parents’ house and dragged me back to the stage where he would proceed to beat the hell out of me. More importantly, I had to figure out what was next, how I was going to take my blue check mark and turn it into gold.
I needed a plan, and until I had one, I couldn’t go forward and I couldn’t go back. I needed direction. Help. But instead, I waited, growing more impatient by the hour. To calm my nerves, I took advantage of the unseasonably warm post-rain weather and opted to drift aimlessly in my parents’ pool, earbuds tucked in my ears as I let other people’s music transport me into a place of clarity.
Maybe even to a place where Jess, my dream girl, would text me back. Because, god knows, it hadn’t happened yet. I’d sent off a handful of follow-up texts over the past couple of days, and while they were delivered to the number I’d entered into my phone, they had not been read or responded to. I’d decided that there were only three possible scenarios that made any sense. One: She was ghosting my ass. But there was nothing about our afternoon together to support that theory. Two: The emergency she was dealing with was more serious than I’d thought, and Jess had emotionally shut down somewhere between my place and the one she’d gone. Or three: I’d entered the wrong number into my phone and was now paying dearly for my mistake.
The more time that passed, the more plausible the third option became, given that Jess had fired the numbers off so fast that I’d struggled to keep up. And if just one number was off, Jess would be the one thinking I’d ditched her. How was I supposed to correct this when I didn’t even have her last name? Jess was the only one who could fix this. She knew who I was. She knew where I lived. But for whatever reason, my getaway girl was nowhere to be found.
And so I floated.
