Page 87 of Lost the Handle

Ava glares. And I’ll give it to her, most cower to Emery. “What? Are you going to hit me again?”

“Maybe,” Emery laughs with a smirk.

Just as Yvette asks, “You hit her?”

I hadn’t even noticed Yvette there, and Emery only waves off her question. “I grabbed her hair because she pushed Quinn.”

Yvette’s gaze snaps to Ava. “What in the world? Why would you put your hands on him?”

Ava holds out her hands at Emery. “He was basically pounding her against the wall at dinner.”

“So?” Yvette asks calmly. “We have sex all the time.”

Emery snorts as Ava’s glare deepens. “Yes, but we aren’t trying to pass off a fake marriage, are we?”

Yvette wants to say more, but I interrupt her. “It doesn’t matter. This is over.”

Ava swings her gaze over to mine, but I don’t miss the smug look on Emery’s face. “No,” Ava snaps, her eyes wild. “I will ruin you.”

“I wish you wouldn’t,” I say more calmly than I feel. As much as I have the support of everyone, I would like to make the decision to reveal my mistakes myself. “I wish you’d take my money and walk away, Ava.”

“You offered her money?”

I meet Emery’s inquisitive gaze. “I did. She’s got me by the balls with?—”

“I know,” she says, cutting me off. “I know all of it, and I told Yvette to offer her the money.”

I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. “How long have you known?”

“A day.”

“You’re brilliant,” I say on a rush. “But I told you to stay out of it.”

“And I don’t listen,” she says with a shrug. “I don’t know why you did it. I could have changed your grades—or you even could have.”

I shake my head, my eyes burning into hers. “I couldn’t when it made me think of you. I missed you. I ached for you. I just wanted to wallow and be a husk of a man, because that’s all I am without you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am. I should have chased after you.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed you. I hate that this happened, that you trusted this person.”

I shake my head. “I was lost without you.”

Tears gather in Emery’s eyes, and soon, she’s coming toward me. I open my arms as she crashes into my chest, wrapping her arms around me before our lips meet in a heated embrace. I kiss her like my ex-fiancée isn’t in the room with her lover. I kiss her like it’s the first, the current, and the last time I’ll ever feel her lips. I relish the feel of her in my arms and pray that when my time comes, I’ll never have to live a day without her. We part only because we can’t breathe, but there is no space to be had. She brushes her lips over mine as she holds my gaze, and she whispers, “I’m so sorry. I really am. I wish I hadn’t been?—”

“We’re moving forward, right?”

A tear spills over her bottom lash. “We are.”

“You’re here?”

“I am. And I’m never leaving.”

“Then all is well,” I tell her, cupping her jaw.

She covers my hand with hers, and the love in her eyes leaves me breathless. “I love you, Quinn, and I swear you’ll never go a day without knowing so.”

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