Page 62 of No Turning Back
The words die on my tongue.
Two extra figures are standing in the living room.
Parker.
And Martinez.
“Quinn!” Parker jumps to his feet like a kid caught stealing cookies. After a long, awkward silence, he blurts, “Oh… uh, you’re here,” then comes closer and hugs me like he’s not sure if I’ll bite him.
I give him the world’s stiffest pat on the back. “Hi.”
He steps back, still grinning. “Oh my god, what are you doing here?” His eyes flick nervously to Sam, who’s scratching the back of his neck, caught between his buddy and me.
I decide to put him out of his misery. “I’m getting divorced. Sam was kind enough to offer hisfrienda room.”
Before he can comment, I tilt my head. “What about you? What are you doing here?”
Parker clears his throat. “Well… we’ve been trying to get Sam to visit us for a while, but he kept dodging the invites. Now I guess I know why.”
I smile tightly. “Why?”
Parker takes a half-step back instead of answering, and that’s when Martinez moves in, sliding an arm around his waist.
My eyes drop to the hand pressed there. Definitely not buddy-like.
Martinez notices me noticing. His jaw tenses, but then he blurts, “Oh, yeah. We… uh… we got married.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “You got married to-”
Parker nods quickly. “Yup. Emmett and I got married.”
I force a smile, but inside I’m screaming:what the actual fuck.
Martinez swallows hard, looking at me. “Hey, Quinn. I just wanted to say I’m sorry about-”
I cut him off, voice sharp as glass. “Shooting me? Ending my career?”
The room goes still.
I give him a bitter smile. “Oh, it’s okay. Who cares anymore, right?”
Then I push past them, deeper into the house. My bag lands on the counter with a thud. “Are you staying for dinner?” I ask, nodding toward the food simmering on the stove.
Sam shifts out of my way so fast you’d think I bit him. “Come on,” I mutter, rolling my eyes. “I’m not feral.”
Parker clears his throat. “We, uh, had a get-together yesterday. There were a bunch of untouched dishes, so we thought…”
“Great.” I flash a smile that’s all teeth. “Food nobody wanted. Can’t wait.”
With that, I head upstairs.
I know it was rude. Snarky. But what the hell did Sam expect, ambushing me like this? Especially withhimin my living room.
In my room, I stall as long as possible.
In another life, I’d be happy to see Parker, the man who treated me like a little sister, who had my back when no one else did. But in this life, he’s married to the man who took everything from me.
I shake my head. What did I expect? Bros over hoes, and I was clearly thehoe, not the bro.
