Page 30 of Chasing After You
Henry clears his throat as if to subtly remind us he’s still here. It’s not possible for me to forget he’s in the room, but I do accept the hand Quinn offers after standing up. “You can make it up to me by telling me what you were about to blackmail Henry with.”
Itdoesseem like a fair trade.
I turn to smile mischievously at Henry, gauging on a scale from one to ten how upset he would be. “Quinndidhelp bandage my hand.”
“No,” Henry immediately protests, a wary expression on his handsome face.
Meh, I’m not very good at doing what I’m told.
“Henry got caught by his dad jerking off to a Wonder Woman comic after forgetting to lock the door,” I blurt out before Henry can put his hand over my mouth again.
His glare is murderous, and maybe I should be a little afraid of him being upset. Quinn howls with laughter as the sound of footsteps gets louder down the stairs.
“How the fuck do you even know that?” Henry gapes, his face tomato red. I laugh easily as Wilson walks into the kitchen with a gym bag over his shoulder.
He stares at Henry for a moment, cocking his head to the side. “What am I walking into?”
Quinn is too busy laughing to form words, leaning over the counter hysterically.
Henry shakes his head in disbelief, dragging a hand over his face. “I was thirteen, okay? It was all I had.”
It doesn’t help. In fact, all of us end up laughing harder.
The only reason I know is because Chris and Penelope told my parents while I was eavesdropping. Of course I had no idea what jerking off meant at the time, but I sure wrote about it in my diary that I reread before I went to college. I’m not even embarrassed to say I went as Wonder Woman for Halloween my freshman year at Duke.
I start to back out of the kitchen, my side aching from laughing so hard. “On that note, I think I’m going to go get ready for work. Don’t leave without me.”
“You can drive your own car today,” Henry grumbles under his breath.
Quinn flashes me a confident smile. “I’ll take you if he leaves. There’s an extra helmet on my bike. Gotta save the planet one carpool at a time, sweetheart.”
I laugh off the endearment because Henry’s entire body stiffens. “You know, Quinn, I think you might have yourself a new friend after all.”
“Fuck no, your dad is already prepared to throw me in a wood chipper. I’m not letting him find out I let you ride on a motorcycle. I’ll wait until you’re ready, and you’ll ride with me,” Henry says, but I’m not sure I love the way he says he’ll “let” me do something. I thought we’d already covered this.
I roll my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. “You don’t let me do anything, Henry. I think that stick is lodged up your ass again. Want me to send you a clip of Wonder Woman so you can relax a little?”
Henry’s eyes flash dangerously, and the guys burst into laughter again as I retreat up the stairs, praying he doesn’t kill me in my sleep tonight.
CHAPTER TEN
Henry
IT’S BEEN A shit day from the start.
I was slow getting out of bed until I heard the sound of breaking glass, and my mind immediately leapt to the possibility of someone breaking in to hurt Mirabelle. She wasn’t in her room when I checked, but it might have been better if someone had broken in than to find her and Quinn in the kitchen together after I specifically asked him to stay away from her. How does that translate to walking around the kitchen shirtless, calling her sweetheart, and offering her rides on his motorcycle?Quick math: it fucking doesn’t.
I think she deserves better than Quinn. In the short time I’ve known him, he’s been a good friend, but I don’t love that the first thing he said about Mira when this shit started was how she’s flexible. He justified it afterward, but it’s still bothering me. Maybe that makes me a possessive asshole, but she’s more than that.
Then my day got worse because I missed a call from my sister while I was in a meeting with Stacey, which Mirabelle wasn’t present for. We haven’t spoken much since the news of our relationship broke, and I hate that. Our parents are probably grilling her, and I don’t want to put her in a position where she has to lie to them.
The real icing on the cake today is I received another call from my birth mother. I declined it, but it’s ignorant of me to assume she’ll get the message to stop calling. I need to come up with something better to call her in my head because she’s not my mother—Penelope is. Penelope has loved and raised me for as long as I can remember.
It feels like I’m discrediting everything Penelope has done for me by calling Allison my mother.
I rack the bar I’m using for bench presses while Wilson spots me. He and Quinn have been cracking Wonder Woman jokes all fucking day since Mirabelle told them that mortifying story this morning.
How the fuck did she even know that? Dad wouldn’t have told her . . . at least, I don’t think he would have. That happened so long ago, I’d forgotten about it.
