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Chapter Seven

Quinn

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

What the hell am I doing?

I’m not ready for this.

“Alice!” I scream, blinking away tears as I flatten my shaking hands against the white lace of my dress. It is a little sexy, ending mid-thigh but with my cowboy boots, it doesn’t look quite so risqué and I’ve spent the last hour and a half curling my hair and doing my makeup but I don’t think I can do this. Alice runs into the room with Brooklyn on her hip.

“What’s wrong?”

I turn to look at her and she sighs before closing the bedroom door and setting Brooklyn down on the floor.

“I have to call and cancel.”

She shakes her head, a determined look on her face. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you do that. You can do this, Sis.”

“I can’t,” I whisper, my hands shaking even harder. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I agreed to this date last night but I can’t actually go through with it. She plops down on the bed.

“Why not?”

I turn back to the mirror and inspect myself again. “I’m not ready.”

“That’s just fear, Quinn. It doesn’t mean that you’re not ready and if you cling to that excuse, you’ll never find love. Next.”

“It’s not good for Brooklyn for me to be going out…”

“Yeah, I’m calling bullshit right now,” she interrupts me, holding her hand up. “Brooklyn is a baby and will never remember this one date, if that’s all it is but if it’s more, I’m damn sure that having more people to love her will never be a bad thing. Next.”

I suck in a breath. “He won’t tell me anything about his past…”

“That’s the point of the date, big sister. You guys go out and eat or see a movie and you get to know each other. Besides, I highly doubt you’ve spilled everything about yourself.”

“I told him about Grams and Mom and Dad.”

She scoffs. “That’s the easy stuff and you know it.”

“I am scared, Al.”

Alice crosses her legs on the bed and nods like she knew that all along. I sigh and turn to face her again.

“What are you scared of, Quinn?”

“Showing him all the broken pieces,” I answer, staring down at my hands.

“No, that’s not it…”

Sucking in a breath, I meet her eyes and glare because damn her for being right all the time. “I’m scared that he won’t accept all the broken pieces.”

“Because?”

“Because I really like him - more than anyone else I’ve ever met.”