About Last Night (About Last Night #1)(25)

I felt the beginnings of an emotional outburst starting at the way the bridge of my nose started to tingle. Blinking away tears, I confessed quietly, “I missed you too, Har.” Coughing away my haywire feelings, I asked, “But you’ve got Quinn, right?”

Harry snorted then teased, “He’s my friend, Mia, not my boyfriend. We hang out a few times a week. Most nights, he’s busy, which suits me just fine considering I work nights.”

I couldn’t help myself. “What does he do at night?”

Harry stilled, thinking of his answer. “He dates a lot.”

I smiled to myself at my brother’s blatant lie. He was a good friend. I thought back two years ago. It was Christmas, and Harry had a little too much to drink. He had caught a cab straight from work at the bar to Christmas dinner at Mom’s, and by the time he arrived, he was already three sheets to the wind. It made for an interesting dinner, with Mom yelling an appalled, “Oh, my God, Harry. Are you drunk?”

Harry just hugged her, picking her up and spinning her in circles, laughing. “Yeah, Mom. I’m drunk. But guess what? I’m over twenty-one and spreading the Christmas cheer!”

He spotted me then and his smile waned. “Mia?”

I had lost a considerable amount of weight before coming home for Christmas. I smiled. “No. My name is Juanita. I’m here for the food.”

Harry grinned and came at me, hugging me tightly. “Get over here, smartass. Jesus! You look great, Minnie!”

Mom huffed. “She’s losing too much weight. It’s not healthy.”

But Harry just looked at me with pride. “Well, I think she looks beautiful.”

After our feast, Mom had retired claiming a headache, and being jetlagged from my flight home, I said goodnight to Harry, leaving him to watch TV on his own. I made my way upstairs, changed into pajamas, and brushed my teeth. Christmas dinner was heavy, and I desperately needed a glass of water to keep by my bedside, so I made my way downstairs.

I expected Harry to have fallen asleep. I didn’t expect to overhear him on the phone.

“Come on, Quinn, I’m bored. Let’s go out!” I had only heard one side of the conversation, but it went something like this: “Are you f*cking kidding me? A client on Christmas?” A slight pause. “Yeah, well, I guess rich housewives get lonely on the holidays too. I hope DFT’s paying you triple-time, bro.”

My brow creased. What was DFT? Was that where Quinn worked? I made a mental note of the business name.

Harry sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Go service your lady of the night. At least one of us is getting lucky and getting paid for it.”

Curioser and curioser.

Harry had ended the phone call as I made my way into the family room. He looked up at me. “Can’t sleep?”

“Just need some water.” I smiled as I walked to the kitchen, quickly retrieving a glass of water, bidding goodnight to Harry and heading back upstairs. I was stopped at the sound of Harry’s voice.

“Mia?”

I stilled at the foot of the stairs and turned to face him. “Yeah, Har?”

He looked at me then, but it was different from the many times before. He searched my face as if he was looking at someone he no longer knew. “You look good, kiddo.”

As soon as I entered my bedroom, I closed the door behind me and retrieved my laptop from my bag. I typed quickly, searching for Matt Quinn and DFT, but no searches matched. Trying once more, I simply typed in DFT and waited.

I clicked on the first entry and began to read.

Women’s services… Hire-a-date… Satisfy your hunger… Escorts for every occasion…

I replayed what I had heard of Harry’s conversation with Quinn. “Yeah, well, I guess rich housewives get lonely on the holidays too. I hope DFT’s paying you triple time, bro.”

It all made sense. My mind was blown. That was the night I discovered Matt Quinn was an escort for hire. A prostitute. And that would cement my plan two years in the making.

My brother drove in silence as the radio played in the background. An idea hit me and I turned to him. “Do you remember when Josh Turner backed out on me at prom and you came as my date?”

Harry’s brow furrowed. “Yeah?”

“Remember where you took me afterwards?”

He shrugged. “Sure. We went to Giovanni’s for pizza.”

Nodding slowly, I turned to face the road and uttered a nonchalant, “I could really go for a slice right now.”

Without a word, he made a turn at the next traffic light and started driving in the opposite direction. “A Giovanni’s pie it is.”




The groan that escaped me was long and low. I rubbed my belly and turned to Harry. “Oh, God, I ate so much. Why didn’t you stop me?”

He looked down at his own slightly protruding stomach then scowled at me. “Why didn’t you stop me? This is all your fault. I was doing so well before tonight.”

I snorted then uttered, “You can do without steamed vegetables and tasteless chicken for one night, you know? You’re pushing yourself too hard. If you don’t treat yourself every now and again, one day, you’ll snap and eat everything in sight.” Eyes wide, I looked at him and assured quietly, “Trust me. I know.”

His face pinched as if he were thinking. “You wanna workout together sometime?”