Page 34 of Temptation

“Hey.” He looked her over, leaning his shoulder on the archway. “You look great.”

“Thanks. You're home early.” She didn't look up from her phone. She was still royally pissed off about the lies he had told Viki and was afraid that if she looked at him, she would throw her phone at his head.

“Yeah, I was hoping we could spend some time together, but I'm guessing you have plans.” His voice sounded defeated, and she glanced up to see him looking sad and hurt.

“Quill is taking me out for dinner.” She answered shortly, her anger intensifying at his sheer shamelessness to be upset about anything she did.

Joel sighed and came to sit beside her. “Quinn, you have to try to meet me halfway here.”

“What does meeting you halfway look like?” It took everything in her not to get up and walk out of the room while telling him exactly what she thought of him.

“Talk to me? Spend some time with me? Try cuddling with me? I don't know. I wasn't looking for sex last night; I just wanted to hold my wife.” He tentatively reached out and took her hand, holding it in both of his. “I just want something from you that says you’re at least receptive to fixing things.”

“Why?” She didn’t know what to say to that without giving everything away.

“What do you mean why?”

“Why is this suddenly important to you?” She put down her phone in her lap and stared at the wall opposite them. “I have been asking for exactly that for four months. Four goddamn months Joel! Why wasn't it important to you then?” She finally looked at him. “If this is because you're worried I'll relapse...”

“I admit that is part of it, but I know I've been a shitty, distant husband, and I didn't realize how serious you were. I had no idea you were at the point where you were considering divorce. I knew I was hurting you, but with everything at work, I didn't have the capacity to deal with the issues here. I just kept thinking I'll fix that soon; she'll understand. I didn't even realize it's been four months.” He was continuing to look at her like he was pleading for her to understand which only made her madder.

“Well, that made me feel so much better about everything!” She exploded. “You haven't even noticed it's been four months since we had any intimacy besides the odd hug or kiss on the cheek. Me having a complete meltdown, crying and begging you to please make some changes or leave me, even laying out exactly what I wanted those changes to be, meant nothing to you because I'll understand!” Quinn's phone buzzed; she picked up, saw Quill was waiting out front, and stood up. “If you want to stay because you're afraid I'll relapse and not because you love me and want this to work out, don't bother. I'm not gonna relapse; I have a lot of great people in my life who will make sure of that.” She headed to the front door, completely done with the conversation and him.

“Is Tenn one of those people?” Joel asked quietly.

“Tenn is one of those people, just like Bishop, Rilla, and Quill.” She paused in the archway and looked back at him. “Ask me.”

“Ask you what?” Quinn knew he was stalling. It was one of his tactics when they fought. He would ask her to clarify what she meant when he knew exactly what she was saying to buy himself time to think while she explained.

“If Tenn and I are sleeping together. I know Viki asked him.”

“Are you?” She noticed his hands curled into fists as he spoke and wondered why he was so jealous. He couldn’t love her as much as he claimed to if he was so willing to step out on their marriage.

“No. Are you sleeping with Viki?” She instantly saw she had caught him off guard.

“No. Why would you ask that?” The look of surprise on his face was almost convincing. Almost.

“No reason.” She smiled innocently. “Just wanted you to see how it felt to have your integrity questioned. Are you going bowling tomorrow night?

“Yeah.” He stood up and came toward her, looking appropriately contrite. “I really am trying to fix this, and I'd like to spend some time with you this week. I've been asked to do some training in Atlanta at One Porsche Drive this weekend. I'll be leaving Friday morning and back Sunday night. My sales have been low lately, and Rhyme wants me to do a refresher. And just so you hear it from me, not Tenn, Viki is going. She wants to switch to sales.”

“I'd make sure she knows about Trina's experience there before she signs up for that.” Her phone buzzed again, and she moved toward the door. “I have to go.”

“How late are you going to be? I want to watch a movie with you.” He followed her to the door and reached out to grab her hand again.

“I don't know.” She shrugged; she wasn’t saying it to be a brat either; she had no idea what was going on with Quill or what he wanted to get dinner for. “I can't remember the last time Quill wanted to have dinner for no reason, so I'm not sure what's going on. If it's not too late, sure.”

“Okay, good.” He looked relieved. “I'm gonna move the mattresses around in the spare room and put my stuff away... unless you'll let me move back?” His voice and expression turned hopeful, and she almost laughed out loud at him.

“Nope.” Quinn opened the front door. “Don't hurt yourself. See you later.” She ran across the lawn and climbed into the car with Quill. “Hey, sorry, Joel was trying to get me to change my mind about leaving him.” She leaned across the console to kiss his cheek.

“Oh yeah, how did that work out for him?” Quill grinned as he pulled away from the curb, and she buckled her seatbelt.

“About as well as you think it did.” She looked at her brother. “So, what's up?”

“I wanted to take you out to thank you for giving Chrissy the tires. The old ones were almost bald; that's why they popped when she hit the pothole.” He paused. “When she saw I had replaced all four, she got upset. We didn't break up exactly, but it didn't end well.”

“Why did she get upset?” Quinn frowned. She wasn’t immediately going to jump to her twin's defence; if she had to guess, there was more behind it than he realized. “I was going to give them away for free anyway.”

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