“We can go out.”
“Later. I’m tired too. And I think I felt Emma moving again.”
“I love you, Quinn,” I whisper, tipping my head up just enough to kiss her. And then I let my eyes fall shut again. Two hours later, I wake up, hot and sweaty. Quinn sleeps with a lot of blankets, and I don’t know how she doesn’t swelter in her sleep. I kick off the comforter and roll over, feeling relief from the ceiling fan above us, and close my eyes again.
Quinn rolls over, hand landing on my chest. “Archer?” she grumbles. “Are you awake?”
“Kind of,” I say, slitting my eyes open. “Are you?”
“No.”
Silently laughing, I take her hand and rub circles in her palm until we both fall back asleep, not waking until one of the cats jumps onto the nightstand and knocks Quinn’s water bottle over. I startle awake, and Quinn feebly swats at Luna. This must happen often.
“Rise and shine, babe,” I say to her with a smile.
“Morning,” she says back, rolling over and wrapping her arms around me. “I didn’t mean to sleep for so long.”
“You needed it.”
“So did you.”
“Yeah. It feels good to lay down and do nothing. I’m aware of how lame I am, so no need to point it out.”
Quinn laughs. “I sat in my comfy office chair all day and I still like to lay down and do nothing.”
“My mom called,” I start. “Bobby got arrested.”
Quinn opens her eyes and pushes up on her elbow. “Shit.”
“It’s okay. It’s a good thing, actually. He was with some loser who was cooking meth in his garage. It could have been a lot worse.”
“He’s okay?”
“For now.”
She runs her hands through her hair and sits up. I realize for the first time that she’s only wearing a camisole and white underwear. Whatever she has to say might be lost on me.
“I was thinking about what I said earlier, about how Bobby is family and you’ll always care and all that.”
“Yeah?” My eyes dart to her nipples.
“It’s okay to cut off toxic family members, and if you think Bobby is toxic, then I support you in cutting him off.”
“He’s more than toxic. He’s a festering pile of—” I stop, seeing Quinn’s face. “He’s still my brother, I know. And yes, I’ll be upset when the day comes and he finally kicks it. But only for my parents.”
Quinn’s frown deepens. “If that’s how you really feel, then okay.”
I sigh. “It’s not. I wish it was though.”
She nestles her head back against my chest. “I did tell you I like honest-Archer best.”
“I feel like an asshole when I’m honest about Bobby,” I admit. “I do care about him because he’s my brother, and he wasn’t always a piece of shit. I’ll be sad when he dies, but sometimes I wish it’d just happen already.” I’ve never spoken these words out loud before. I’ve barely let myself even think them. “Every time my phone rings I wonder if it’s the call. And if it’s not his death my mom’s calling about, then it’s something he did. He’s killing himself and there’s no way around that. But he’s going to take someone down with him too. Maybe it’s driving under the influence or selling laced weed to kids. All Bobby does is destroy, and waiting for the end is worse than going through the final never-ending chapter.”
“That makes sense,” Quinn says quietly. “Living with the fear of never knowing what’s going to happen would make me anxious.”
“In a perfect world, he’d recover. But the world isn’t perfect, and I know the odds of someone coming back from something like this.”
“It’s not impossible,” Quinn adds, tracing her fingers up and down my chest. She flattens her hand and slowly drags it down, fingertips slipping under the band on my boxers. “Instead of going out for dinner, I was thinking I could cook for you and then maybe we could go out for dessert.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Have you had The Cheesecake Factory cheesecake before?”
“I have not. I’m guessing it’s good?”
“It’s so good.” She pushes herself up, kissing me before getting out of bed. “Do you like chicken enchiladas?”
“There’s not much I don’t like. I’m easy like that.”
“You are easy, Dr. Jones. I got in your pants on our first date, remember?”
Laughing, I slap her ass as we get out of bed, catching her around the waist. I pull her in and kiss her neck, dreading leaving already. I go into the living room, cats following, while Quinn uses the bathroom. The cats won’t stop meowing, and I know enough now to know they’re expecting dinner at this time.
Going to the cabinet where Quinn keeps the cat food, I don’t see Quinn walking out of the bedroom. I close the cabinet and turn. The can of cat food slips from my fingers.
“Holy shit.” I blink, slowly running my eyes over Quinn. She’s wearing dark purple lingerie and she’s so right about her tits getting bigger. They’re close to spilling out of the thin lace.
A bit of color rushes to her cheeks, which only adds to the appeal. “I was going to wait until later to put this on, but you keep surprising me. I wanted to surprise you for a change.”
I take a few seconds to look her up and down again, memorizing every curve of her body. “This is a good surprise.”
Her shy smile turns coy, and she walks right past me, heels clicking on the hardwood floor, and bends over to get a pot from a cabinet next to the oven.
“Sit down,” she says, putting the pot on the burner. “Part of your surprise is getting to watch me cook. Well, if that’s something you’d like.” She turns to me, cheeks flushed again. “I’m not very good at this.”
“You’re perfect.”
19
Quinn
“I think we should make this a regular Friday-night occurrence,” Archer says. We’re sitting on the couch, naked and snuggled together with our feet propped up on the coffee table and plates of food on our laps. “I like eating naked.”
“I do too, and I have to say I did a good job on these enchiladas.”
“They taste just like the ones your mom makes,” he tells me, knowing that’s a compliment. My mom is a great cook.
“The recipe is pretty easy to follow,” I confess. “It’s not like a four-course fancy meal or anything, though I think the preparation gives this meal five stars.”
“You could have made me Ramen noodles and it would have been five stars.”
Laughing, I take my last bite and put my plate on the coffee table, reaching over to get my water. Archer gets up to get a second helping, and I shamelessly watch his ass as he walks into the kitchen.
Once we’re done eating, we lounge around a bit and then get dressed to head out. The weather turned overnight, and the air has a cool crispness in it that always excites me. I love the fall.
“Are you hungry for dessert yet?” Archer asks me.
“Oh hell no.” I pat my stomach. “I’m still not used to eating full meals like this.”
“I’m glad you’re able to again. See?” He gently nudges me. “There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Yeah. I’m excited to get to that end too. Who do you think Emma will look like?”
“I imagine her to look like you.”
“Me too. And if she were a boy, she’d look like you.”
“That’s how I imagined it too,” he says with a chuckle. “I hope she has your green eyes.”
“Is that possible? I don’t remember anything about genes from the bio class I took in high school.”
“Yeah, it’s possible, but she’s more likely to get brown eyes from me. So, sorry.” He gives me a smile. “I think the percentage is around thirty-eight for green and fifty for brown.”
“That’s higher than I thought you’d say. I do like having green eyes, but I like yours too. Our child will have dark hair, right? How do dominant genes work?”
Archer’s eyes light up.
“You really want me to explain it? Because I will.”