Page 65 of End It All

"How far are you?"

I glanced up checking the streets. "Thirty minutes or so."

"Perfect. I should be done by the time you walk through the door."

"I still can't believe you can cook."

"What does that mean? I'll have you know I'm a master in the kitchen."

I hummed lightly, flagging down a taxi. "You'd make some man truly happy with your wifey traits."

"Fuck you."

"How was the meeting with your brothers?"

Blake was silent for so long, I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

"Was it that bad?" For some reason, anger simmered in my gut on his behalf. "Do I need to go to Benito's place and raise hell?"

"What? No." Blake cleared his throat and turned down the music a little. "It wasn't bad, it was different."

"That's not telling me a whole lot, doll. I need to know if I should go kick their asses or not."

"You protecting me now, Quincy?"

My stomach flipped and I cleared my throat. "It's part of the perks of me being your babysitter."

"No. I—" He hesitated for a second, filling the line with silence. "I grew up an only child. We changed places so often, I never really made friends. And today was the first time I was kind of a part of a big family."

"Kind of? You're one of them."

"I wouldn't go that far." Blake was silent for a bit. "Is it weird I'm hoping to be one day?" He was quick to keep talking. "I didn't come here for that shit. I didn't even know I had brothers before arriving in this hellscape. But?—"

"But now you have them and you want to be a part of them." I could understand more than most. "Nah, you're not weird.Everyone wants a family." I slipped into the back of a cab and gave him my address. "I'm on my way home and you can tell me all about your brother bonding moments."

"Why are you like this?"

A chuckle rumbled up my chest. "Don't act like my charming personality isn't why you like me." The tension that had been building to unbearable levels wasn't so bad anymore.

I wasn’tsure why I’d decided to make dinner for Quincy. Coming back to the empty apartment and him being gone had felt… odd. Especially because I had really wanted to talk to him. The meeting I had with my brothers was different than anything I could have expected. Better. They all seemed to be proud of me for breaking in and stealing, two things my mother would have whacked me over the head for. Not that she was wrong, I knew I was a criminal, but still. They accepted me.

At least as far as I could tell.

Nervousness still wrapped around my spine and shot up and down it. Did they accept me? Before, I wouldn't have given a shit. Or maybe I had just been telling myself that from the start. The truth? I was always looking for some place to belong. Mygreatest wish had been to find friends that would want to be around me or a family that was normal and happy.

I hadn't gotten either of those things. But this? It seemed like a way I might be able to move forward. I'd tried to put them behind a wall, to keep myself safe from them, but today it felt like something had changed.

I smiled thinking about Quincy’s words. If he was anyone else, I wouldn’t have shared how I felt about the meeting or how much I wanted to belong somewhere. Anywhere. But he’d encouraged me. Supported me.

Maybe he wasn’t such an asshole after all.

"I'm home!"

My head shot up, pulling me out of my thoughts as Quincy walked into the apartment. He stopped in the doorway and inhaled deeply, his eyes going wide before they fell on me. He tilted his head.

"Wow, it actually smells good in here."

I blinked at him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

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