Page 35 of Xavier

Why couldn’t that be enough for my stupid ass brain to comprehend?

“Uh oh.” Quinn planted himself right on top of the next bag before I could grab it. “Trouble in paradise?”

Annoyed, I said, “Can you move?”

“Not until you spill the beans, Torres.”

“Quinn,” I growled.

He simply flashed me a pleasant smile. “Come on, you know you want to tell me.”

“Don’t you have someone else to pick on?”

“Nah, it’s his day off. So I need to fill the void somehow.”

This was so fucking typical of him. If he didn’t have Jase around to bug, he’d sniff out the weakest link in the chain until he found someone to attach to for the rest of the day. Which just so happened to be me.

Honestly, I didn’t have much fight left in me. I was already exhausted from doing mental gymnastics in my head, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t crazy in feeling justified over my reaction to Xavier, while at the same time feeling bad about it.

What did that say about me?

About us?

He had enough on his plate to deal with without me adding to it with my stupid lovesick heart bleeding at the mere possibility that marriage wasn’t in our future. He hadn’t said it out loud but his face had told me plenty.

Wandering over to one of the metal chairs set back against the wall, I flopped down onto it while I leaned forward and rested my head in my hands. Overthinking was my specialty.

And when it came to Xavier?

Forget it. I was cooked.

“Come on, man. Talk to me,” Quinn said.

“You can’t tell anyone.”

“Uh…”

Rolling my eyes, I said. “Besides Jase.”

“You got yourself a deal.”

I sighed, my gaze directed at the floor. “So, my boyfriend’s up from California visiting and earlier when I went home for lunch, he and I got to talking about some things. And... I don’t know. I guess I took it a little more personally than he probably meant it to come across.”

“I’m loving the cryptic way you’re telling me this, Torres.”

Ugh.

I let my hands drop from my head when I lifted it up. “We got onto the topic of marriage.”

His brows shot up to his hairline. “Wow, congrats. That’s pretty serious.”

“Yeah, except he laughed in my face about it.”

“Yikes.”

“I feel like a total idiot. This is the first time it was ever brought up and I froze. He was joking around about it. Meanwhile, I took it seriously and got my own feelings hurt.”

“Hmm.” Quinn leaned back on the bag, his body shifting slightly. He ran one of his hands over his jaw a few times while he chose his words carefully. “So what exactly did he say to you? I’m just trying to get the full picture here.”

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