Page 5 of Temptation

“Yeah, no problem.” Tenn noticed his smile was very forced and had to admit that removing his desire to call them both out was making this a lot of fun. “We have a couple of bottles of wine, but I can make a drink at the bar, too. I know Quinn will have wine, Tenn?”

“Wine sounds great.” Tenn nodded. He watched Quinn move around the kitchen, calm and confident in her space and tried to syphon some of it to him. He still kind of wanted to punch Joel in the throat but was also enjoying his discomfort. Realising Viki hadn't said a word. He looked to see her standing frozen in the doorway, looking like someone had kicked her puppy. “Come in and sit down, Vik.” He gestured at the stool next to him. She shook her head and forced a smile as she came in.

“Sorry, I'm just surprised, that's all. Joel had painted you as more of a free-spirited hippie/bohemian woman, not quite so domesticated.” She met Joel's eyes reproachfully as he poured the wine, and Tenn noted that he hadn't asked her what she would want, just poured her a glass of red wine.

“Oh?” Quinn laughed lightly. “I am the head librarian in the Visual Arts Resource Library at Boston University, and I paint and like to dress a little hippish, I guess. I'm probably not as domestic as he would like. That whole stay-at-home wife thing was never something I wanted to do.”

“I was raised to believe the men look after their wives; what can I say?” Joel shrugged as he passed out the wine. “Men work and make money, and their wives look after the home.”

“Tenn believes women should contribute,” Viki said a little snarkily as she took the glass of wine from Joel. Tenn noticed that when their fingers touched, Joel pulled away like he had been shocked.

“Yes. If someone wants to be a stay-at-home wife, they should contribute by keeping the house clean, cooking meals, and making it easier for their husband to work more to fund them both.” Tenn said mildly, not looking to have this fight with her again, especially in front of Quinn. “Especially if there are no children to look after.”

“Exactly.” Joel nodded and sounded surprised that Tenn had that view, making Tenn wonder what Viki had told him.

“And if she wants to work and help contribute financially, then the husband helps contribute to the household chores.” Tenn continued. “Nothing should fall one hundred percent on either spouse. It's supposed to be a partnership.”

“I agree.” Quinn smiled at Tenn as she began pulling out plates.

“Do you need a hand?” Tenn asked. It was clear Joel wasn't going to help; he was sitting at the end of the island snacking on the grapes in the fruit bowl.

“Um. Sure, could you pull the garlic loaf out of the oven, please?” Quinn nodded and gave him a smile of thanks as she put a strainer in the sink and grabbed the pot of pasta to drain.

“No problem.” He got up and came around the island. Her kitchen was very intuitive, and he found the oven mitts immediately. They moved easily around each other like they had been doing this for years. “Did you make this from scratch as well?”

“Yep. And the pasta too.” She smiled and began plating and carrying things over to the glassed-in nook off the kitchen. “I only use the dining room for holidays, so we'll eat here.”

“This isn't the dining room?” Tenn chuckled. The table was set up for four, but the space was large enough that she could expand the table to fit eight comfortably or ten if they didn't mind reduced elbow room.

“It's an enlarged breakfast nook.” Joel came in carrying the wine. “I went away to a conference for a week and came back to this.” He shook his head.

“You got this done in a week?” Tenn looked around in amazement as they sat down. “Who was your contractor?”

Quinn looked a little confused. “You don’t know? My twin brother is Quill Turner.”

“As in Q Architecture?” Tenn paused. Now he knew why she looked so familiar; he and Quill had known each other for years. Quill often used him as a consultant for historical projects, and a picture of him with Quinn at their graduation from Boston University was hung up on his office wall. “Quill and I know each other quite well.” He found out about Quinn at a meeting a few years ago when Quill had called and asked him to change their meeting location to in front of the hospital. He had walked up to find him slumped on a bench under a tree.

“Quill! Is everything okay?” Tenn was concerned; he'd never seen Quill look so upset and exhausted, and they had worked together on some long and difficult projects.

“My twin sister collapsed at work yesterday. I forgot all about our meeting until my phone reminded me. Sorry.” Quill put his face in his hands and took a deep breath.

“Hey, don't apologize. We could have met anytime. Is she okay?” Quill had only mentioned his twin in passing, but he had gathered that they were very close and spent a lot of time together.

“She's currently sedated to reduce stress on her heart and being force-fed by a tube through her nose.” Quill rubbed his face and looked up at the hospital. “All thanks to her prick of a husband and our bitch of a mother.”

“Do you need anything?” Tenn didn't know what else to say. Quill hadn't told him much about his family, just that he was only in contact with his twin.

“An alibi if her husband goes missing?” Quill let out a dry chuckle, and Tenn noticed his knuckles were cut and bruised.

“Absolutely. What did he do?”

“Told her she was letting herself go and getting fat, knowing exactly what would happen,” Quill growled, anger flashing across his face. “She's anorexic. Our older sister, Queenie, is a model, absolutely gorgeous. Tall, willowy, graceful and can eat an entire large pizza herself, go for a run and not gain a pound. Just one of the ones who won the genetic lottery in every way possible. Our mother had her in beauty pageants and spent all her time doting on her. Dad wanted a boy, so she got pregnant, and Q and I were born. When it became clear Q wouldn't get any taller and wouldn't be a slender pageant princess like Queenie; Mom stopped interacting with her except to tell her to lose weight; she was too fat and an embarrassment. Which is hilarious because Q was about fifty pounds lighter at her largest than Mom was at her smallest. Queenie and I take after Dad, tall, with fast metabolisms. Quinn is the only one who took after Mom, and she has to work harder to stay in a healthy weight range. She’s never been overweight; she’s just not built to be tiny if that makes sense.”

“We have that “Twin Connection” and have always been very close, but Dad and I were constantly going to my track meets, games and tournaments. Queenie had Mom, I had Dad, Q had me, and I was always gone.” He shoved his hand through his light brown hair, messing it up further. “She cut back on eating until she practically lived on lettuce and began working out fanatically. Dad and I were at a national track meet in Texas, Mom and Queenie were doing some modelling show in New York City, and Q was with my grandparents in Worcester. The school called and told us she had collapsed and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.” Quill sniffed, and Tenn just sat quietly, letting him get it out.

“She almost fucking died, and my parents and sister's response was to get angry at her for ruining things and making them come back to deal with her “dramatics.” The fact that their fifteen-year-old daughter was in a hospital bed, sixty pounds underweight, with every bone on prominent display and a feeding tube in her nose meant nothing to them. No one knew how skinny she was because she wore layers of baggy clothes.”

“My Grandparents didn't want her to go back to our house because they knew she wouldn't be looked after the way she needed to be, so they called my aunt, my dad's sister, and she came and took Q home with her to New York, where she did inpatient care for a year then transitioned back to my aunt's house. We kept in touch through email and online chats but didn't see each other again until we went to University.” Quill sighed. “Sorry for dumping on you. I think I have some unresolved trauma that seeing her like this all over again has triggered.”

---