Page 68 of No Place Like Home

“Sooo—” she said after just a minute.

“I thought we agreed to not a word.”

She let go of the wheel and raised her hands.

“Sorry.”

“Bro,” I explained as I reached for the wheel.

She held onto it, looked back at me, and gasped.

“Did you just call me ‘bro’? What happened to calling me ‘mamas’? You used to love me!” She went into full dramatic mode. “As I was saying earlier….”

I leaned my head back, because I should have known better.

“Jess stopped by the diner, and that’s not weird since she usually gets coffee in the mornings before school. The only difference was the hickey on her neck.”

My head turned toward Freya, and my brows raised, but there was zero shame on my part.

“Freya,” I said her name in a serious tone that surprised us.

I had been hitting on her since I was seventeen. At first, it was kind of serious because when she blew into town, there was no one like her, but as the years went on, I just did it because she was a friend. It was our thing, so I couldn’t remember the last time I’d said her name.

“Just drop this, okay? Whatever is going on with us, do not say shit. Don’t tell her shit about it. Let the chips fall where they may.”

Freya was quiet, and a quiet Freya wasn’t usually a good thing.

“Promise me one thing,” she finally replied.

I gave her a nod.

“Don’t hurt her.”

I wasn’t going to. What happened wasn’t anything more than just sex between two people who were too angry at the world to go get laid anywhere else. It was just a release. Human nature.

“Why did you stop by?” I asked after a few seconds.

“Oh, Juliet called us asking if we had seen Jess. Once Jess stopped by, we already knew Jake was on the way to the house. He probably wanted to know who defiled his baby girl.”

I rolled my eyes.

“She’s not his daughter,” I replied, knowing it wasn’t all that true.

“She’s like a little sister to him, and you came and bow-chica-wow-wowed her.”

I rubbed my face. “Stop the car!”

Freya braked suddenly. My hand held onto the dashboard to steady myself.

“I love you, mamas, but bye,” I said as I got out and slammed the door in her face.

I started to walk away, but the Beetle was following me.

“Get back in the car, Quincy!” Freya yelled as she followed behind me.

I couldn’t even think with her behind me. One thing I did know was that I needed to speak to Jess.

“What if I tell you where you can find Jess?”

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