Page 99 of Delayed Penalty

“Like you have any room to talk.” I wave my hand around the bar we’re sitting in. “You fucked the woman who built this when it went against her contract.”

His eyes darken. “Don’t talk about Auden like that.”

“Then don’t talk about Quinn like that.”

He smirks, and I want to punch that off too.

“Stop fucking looking at me like that,” I growl.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No,” he counters, sounding too much like Lawson right now for his own good.

I roll my eyes with a huff. “Whatever.”

He laughs. “Look, I’m not here to judge. I’m really not. We both already know I have no business doing so after what Auden and I did.”

“Then why are you here?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. Just to let you know I know and I get it. Sometimes we meet people we shouldn’t want, but we do anyway, and we do things we shouldn’t do to have them in our lives. It’s not thesmartest decision, but it’s still one we make, you know?”

I do know. Being with Quinn is a decision I make every day, and even when I know I’m making the wrong one, I can’t help it. He’s right. I am into her. Big-time.

I wish I could stop, wish I could go back to being annoyed by her inability to make a black coffee right. But I can’t. Hell, I bet if she made one now and messed it up, I’d find it endearing. She’s just gotten under my skin like that.

“I like her,” Hutch says. “For what it’s worth. You seem…different lately. I know you kind of got the shit end of the stick at the beginning of the summer with all the crap with your niece, and I know you were struggling with adjusting. But now, since Quinn came along, you’ve seemed a lot more like your old self. As much as I hated that guy in the beginning, I kind of missed him, and it’s good to have the old you back. I think you have her to thank for that.”

I have been feeling a lot like my old self lately. I chalked it up to getting proper sleep, not having to worry about Flora every waking moment, and being back on the ice, but maybe there’s something to what Hutch is saying. Maybe it does have to do with Quinn.

“Anyway,” he says, “your secret is safe with me. So if you were worried I’d say something to someone, Iwon’t. I’ll keep my lips sealed until you’re ready to tell everyone else.”

“Tell everyone else what?”

“That you’re with Quinn.”

“I’mnotwith Quinn.”

He laughs as he stands up. “Right, Hayesy. Whatever you say.”

He pats me on the back twice before heading up to his room. I don’t realize until he’s walked away that he never touched his drink, and I haven’t touched mine either. Suddenly, a beer doesn’t sound so good right now. At the moment, I kind of just want to call home.

I make my way up to my room, falling backward onto my bed and trying to shut out the shit game and even the conversation with Hutch. I inhale deeply, then exhale, and all it does is remind me of Quinn trying to coach me through building that playset I never finished. I smile, thinking of Flora and her.

I miss them.

I pull my phone from my pocket and hit Quinn’s name. It rings only twice before she answers.

“Hello?” she says, sounding like she’s out of breath. Like she ran to answer the call…mycall.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

She sighs sympathetically. “Better than your night, apparently.”

I grunt. “I’d hope so.”

“Flora’s asleep already.”

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