With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men #4)(26)

When I nodded in agreement, he sent me a small smile. “How about I go this way, looking for her, and you go that way?”

I agreed and we set off in our different directions. I found Caroline a few minutes later, sitting on a bench across the street from the pizza parlor under a streetlight. She didn’t say anything or acknowledge me as I approached, but I knew she knew I was there. Silently, I sat beside her and waited.

She stopped hugging her knees and set her feet slowly back on the ground. “I tried to kiss Oren, but he pushed me away.”

I swallowed, almost wishing I wasn’t her confidante because I wasn’t sure just how many secrets I could contain for other people. “I saw,” I said.

She glanced at me. “You did? Does he know that?”

I nodded. “Yeah. He didn’t want me to tell anyone about it.”

“Well...I guess that was nice of him to help me keep my mortification private.” Tucking her hands under her thighs until she was sitting on them, she waited another few seconds before she looked at me again. “You probably think I’m pretty pathetic, huh?”

With a shake of my head, I said, “No. Not at all. I...actually, I thought you were really brave.” Across the street, I caught sight of Quinn as he spotted us. Instead of crossing the street to us, though, he slowed to a stop and respectfully let me have a moment alone with Caroline. “Having the courage to go after something you want…I’ve never had that kind of strength before. I’d think it’d be amazing, though.”

She sniffed as tears filled her eyes. “I’m pretty messed up right now, is what I am.”

I smiled. “Then I guess I’m pretty pathetic, because I was just wishing I could be more like you.”

Her laugh was self-derisive. “Trust me, you don’t want to be like me.”

Shrugging, I tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that.”

She didn’t answer for a while. Then she blew out a breath and said, “Or maybe we’re just messed up together.”

A grin tugged at my lips. “Maybe.” I pushed to my feet. “Come on. I think our ride’s waiting.”

Brows furrowing, she looked up at me. “Ride?”

I hitched my chin toward Quinn and explained how her brother had already taken the rest of her family home. She nodded in resignation and followed me back across the street. But before we reached him, she tugged me back a step to say into my ear, “Hey. Thank you.”

I hadn’t done anything very life altering, but I nodded and grabbed her hand, squeezing it warmly before letting go.

Quinn didn’t appear annoyed about having to wait on us. He remained low key, his hands in his pockets but worry in his eyes. “Ready to go?” was all he said.

His reaction was so unlike what my father would’ve done, it was kind of startling how cool he was about the entire situation.

I nodded, answering for both Caroline and myself as I ignored the strange urge to step toward him and hug him. His body was huge and bulky and looked really hard, but I had a feeling a hug from him would be comfortable and safe. Maybe it was because I knew he smelled so good, or because his T-shirt looked so soft and well worn, or maybe it was because he exuded a protective aura I just wanted to burrow into. In either case, it freaked me out how close I wanted to get to him. So I made sure to keep Caroline between him and me as the three of us walked quietly back to Cora’s car.

The trip home was quiet and tense, mostly because an angry silence radiated from Cora throughout the car. In the backseat, Caroline and I didn’t talk either. All she whispered to me was, “Good luck,” after Quinn pulled into her drive to let her out. There was nothing I needed luck for, but I appreciated her concern, anyway.

As soon as we parked in the parking garage to the high rise, Cora shoved the door open and marched off, slamming it behind her. Quinn breathed out a long, loud sigh as he watched her go.

“She’ll be fine,” I felt compelled to say. “Cora never stays mad long.”

He twisted in his seat just enough to glance back at me. A small smile lifted his lips. “Yeah,” he agreed, but he still looked miserable as his gaze slid back to his girlfriend who was being let inside by Henry.

Suddenly, Quinn glanced back at me again. “Hey, thanks for everything you did for Caroline.”

I blushed, stumped by his gratitude. “I didn’t...” I shook my head.

“Noel said he hadn’t seen her laugh all summer. When he saw you talking to her at the car wash, making her laugh...that’s why he wanted you to eat pizza with them. He was so grateful for what you’d done.”

A surprised laugh left me. “But I didn’t do anything.”

Quinn gave a slight shake of his head. “You included her,” he said, reminding me of what Cora had done for me that first day I’d met her. She’d asked me to sit on the bench next to her, and then she’d just...talked to me as if I was someone. She’d included me in her life. And now here I was, ready to give up a kidney for her.

“Sometimes, it’s the little things we do that mean the most to others,” Quinn murmured, echoing my thoughts.

I don’t know what changed in that very moment, but the last remaining bit of uncomfortable tension I’d felt around him the first night we met kind of just…melted away. I smiled as my chest eased.