With Every Heartbeat(30)

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.

Bringing his knuckles to his mouth, Quinn noticed nothing of my situation. He returned his attention to the entrance of our building. Cora was long gone inside, but he kept staring at the door before he asked, “Mind if I follow you up? Try one last time tonight to mend fences with her?”

“Sure,” I said.

The elevator ride up was quiet, but it didn’t feel as weird as it had the night before. Quinn was lost in his own thoughts, and I was still digesting all the things that had happened during and after the car wash. After I unlocked the door and let him in, he nodded his thanks and walked back to Cora’s closed bedroom door. He knocked once, then let himself in and quietly shut the door behind him.

I drifted back to my own room. My stomach grumbled from the supper we’d never gotten to eat, but it felt weird to wander around the apartment while Cora and her boyfriend talked in her room. So I curled up on my bed and wrote a short story about a girl who tried to kiss a boy but was shot down. In the end, they got back together and lived happily ever after.