“Hey. Hello,” my sister said, snapping her fingers at us. “You two really need to focus. Delene, drive them to the lot. Jess, you and your rock star can make your getaway from there. Oh, and Quinn? Thank you for the best publicity a tour company could ever have.”
21
Quinn: The Unbroken
It wasn’t until I was sitting in the passenger seat of Jess’s car that I realized the significance of the moment. We’d come full circle. I was back where I belonged. Twisting my head in her direction, I smiled.
She glanced back. “Wipe that smile off your face, Quinn.”
A low rumbling laughter burst forth.
“You don’t get to enjoy this,” she said, her own amusement coming out to play. “If you’d just stayed home where you belonged, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Fair. But if you’d just answered my damn texts, it wouldn’t have happened either. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you brought this on yourself. You could’ve knocked on my door at any time in the past five weeks. You’re the problem here, not me.”
Jess bit down on her lower lip, staring straight ahead. “No, you’re right. This is all my fault. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. This isn’t what I wanted either.”
“Then why do it? You make no sense.”
“I know. And I will tell you, it’s just… I have to drop something off really quick, and then we’ll go somewhere and talk, okay?”
Did I have a choice? No. Her silence confused me. Why was she hesitating? There was no denying our chemistry was right where’d we’d left it. And now, seeing her again, I was more determined than ever to make her mine. But Jess was in charge of this negotiation, not me, and whatever was holding her back seemed major enough that I might not get what I wanted in the end.
Jess pulled into a parking lot and turned off her car. I read the sign on the front of the building—The Maas Transitional Housing Center—and then quickly glanced over at Jess.
“Do you work here too?”
“No. Someone I love lives here.”
The revelation stunned me. Someone Jess loved was homeless? She reached into the back seat to grab a bag before turning to address me.
“You can wait in the car,” she said, opening the door and stepping out. “I’ll be back quick.”
I opened my own door and climbed out.
“Quinn—I’m not going to abandon you. I’m coming back. It’s my car.”
“I know. But if it’s okay with you, I’d like to meet this person you love.”
She stopped, her eyes wary. “It’s not pretty.”
“I grew up in ‘not pretty.’”
Jess considered my words before reaching her hand out to me. “Okay.”
My fingers slipped into hers and we entered together. Jess didn’t stop for directions, moving through the facility with purpose, her head held high. If I hadn’t been convinced of this woman’s worth before now, this moment sealed the deal. Like me, Jess would walk through fire to protect the ones she loved.
We moved down a hallway that led into an expansive rec room in the back. She made a beeline for a man sitting in a wheelchair, his leg in a cast that reached up to his knee. He was staring at the wall. He must have heard us approach because he turned and reached his hand out to Jess. She dropped mine and took his, leaning down to kiss his cheek.
“Hi Dad. How are you feeling today?”
The desperation on his weathered face was clear. “Not good. I need a drink, Jesse. They won’t give me one, and I can’t go out and get one myself because of my leg. Just one. Please, help me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
He pulled her in closer, whispering, “They’re trying to kill me.”
“No, they’re helping you, Dad. It should only be a few more days and then they’ll get you in the rehab facility. I know it’s hard, but you’re doing great.”
