Page 7 of Midnight Oil

My words fell off as he took hold of my hand. "You don't have to but it's true." Even in the shadow of the building, his eyes were a vibrant green. "Now, let me give you a ride home because I'm not leaving you here alone. Another reason for me to hate what's his name. How dare he leave you sitting in the dark by yourself."

"Trust me, Quinn, you don't need to list reasons out loud for my sake. I've got a list a mile long. Anyhow, I'm not alone." I gazed up at him. "I'm with the Red Knight. And on that declaration—yes, a ride home would be nice."

Five

Quinn

My offer to give Suzy a ride had started out being one of pure chivalry. She was sitting alone outside a dark building, waiting for a ride that didn't seem to be coming. But just a few minutes driving with her, chatting about nothing in particular, listening to her lyrical laugh and watching her smooth the bottom of her dress down toward her knees a hundred times, I questioned my first motive of chivalry. Was I just doing the decent thing, or was I trying to find a way to spend more time alone with the woman who had caught my attention from the moment the boss first introduced us. I'd been so thrown off by my initial reaction to Suzy that I'd acted the idiot and jumped right into theSuzy Qsong. For the past six months, I'd had to remind myself that she was with someone else but that hadn't kept me from making a valiant effort to flirt with her.

"Turn right here. I forgot to ask," she said after she pointed to the corner near her house, "how was Archer? Did he hurt his leg when he stumbled?" She laughed lightly. "By the way what a scare you gave the group of women who were out celebrating a thirtieth birthday. They were ready to race out onto the field and administer first aid to the knight. Can't believe you stayed in the saddle with all that gear."

"That was more because Archer recovered fast enough to not dump me on the ground. Nick, the head horse trainer, walked him around for awhile. He didn't notice any lameness, but I think Archie earned himself a little well deserved R and R."

Suzy pointed ahead. "This is humiliating to say but it's the ramshackle little green house on the north side of the street. It's just a rental. I'm hoping to find something nicer—"

I put my hand on her arm. "Don't, Suzy. I know you work hard and cost of living is high." I pulled up to the curb and parked behind a red truck sitting in front of their house. Suzy's dented little car was parked in the driveway. A light was on in the front room.

"That's great," she said. "He's just sitting at home watching television and he still forgot me. Doesn't that make me feel special. Hopefully, it just means he's passed out from too much—" Her voice trailed off as the front door opened and a woman walked out onto the crumbling stoop. The porch light was broken but we could still see that she was carrying her high heeled shoes in her hand as she tiptoed over the dead grass.

My Porsche caught her attention. The woman completely ignored Suzy sitting in the passenger seat as she tucked her hair behind her ear and flashed me a smile before climbing into the truck and driving away.

We sat in awkward silence for a few seconds.

"Guess I know why he forgot to pick me up." There was no waver in her tone. "I wonder how long he's been seeing her." she said quietly.

"Knew that guy was a fuckface the second I met him." I looked over at her but she stared straight ahead. "I'd be glad to go inside and throw that jerk out on his ass. In fact, I wouldn't just be glad, I'd be over the moon happy to do it."

Suzy shook her head. "No, he's not worth the effort. Guess I'm not worth the effort either."

"Not true. Come home with me tonight." I rushed to explain myself before she could look askance at my offer. "I've got a spare bedroom . . . and a giant soak tub and a stocked wet bar. You could sit in a hot bubble bath, sip a glass of wine and forget all about the asshole inside that house."

She breathed in a long, deep breath. "Sounds better than sleeping on a park bench or, for that matter, inside that crappy little house with—what did you call him—fuckface?"

"Among other things," I admitted.

She nodded weakly. There was the slightest smile on her lips, but I knew, deep down, she was hurting. "I like fuckface. It suits him." She looked over at me. "Considering I haven't had a hot bubble bath since I was living with my parents, I'll take you up on your generous offer. But only for tonight. I'm just going to push all this shit out of my head for one night and pretend I'm in a different life altogether. Then tomorrow I'll figure out how to get that beer guzzling cockroach out of my house."

Six

Suzy

Since Quinn drove an expensive car, I expected him to have a nice place, but, in my mind, a nice place was a two to three bedroom house with a cute front yard of flowers and grass and a brick chimney. I might have heard tidbits about his beautiful house from those in the know, namely coworkers who had dated him, but I never expected a modern architectural masterpiece tucked in the side of a hill with full length windows overlooking the city.

As the car climbed the long, snaky driveway, I glanced over at Quinn. "This is all starting to feel surreal, like maybe Ididjust land in a different life. I'm sitting next to the Red Knight, who, by the way, looks just as dashing without the armor, and it feels like we're driving up to a castle."

Quinn laughed. "Not exactly a castle, but trust me, after my childhood, I sometimes still have to pinch myself when I'm driving up to this place. Of course, it's all courtesy of my brother, Trey. He's always looked after me. Even when we were growing up. Our single mom had to work three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. We had a few places that made your rental house look like the aforementioned castle. Trey was sort of a big brother slash dad. He missed out on a lot of stuff because of his baby brother." It was nice to hear him talk so openly and fondly about his brother.

A shiny black garage door lifted and Quinn pulled the car inside. There was a nice Toyota truck next to the Porsche's spot.

"Your garage is bigger and nicer than my whole house. I've got to ask—why do you work at the dinner theater?"

"Trey insists I work, and I'm glad he makes me. It keeps me busy and sane. He wants me to work for the Plaything Company, but I'd rather do my own thing. Plus, he's a big brother and he's kind of bossy." He climbed out and was quickly at my door to open it.

As I lowered my leg, I brushed my tender hip against the edge of the seat and winced at the pain.

Quinn offered me his hand. "That's the second time I've seen you scrunch up that cute little nose when something pressed against your hip. Did you hurt yourself?"

"Yes, it's just a bruise," I said, quickly, wanting to change the subject. Not just because it was too embarrassing to tell the real story but for the next twelve hours, before the sun broke in the sky, I wanted to pretend that Tate Silva didn't exist. On the drive to Quinn's hilltop home, I searched through my brain to see if there were any clues I'd missed about the woman in the red truck. I couldn't think of any, other than the general lack of affection between us for the past few months. But that was more on my side than his. Maybe he decided to look elsewhere for that attention. That was fine by me, as long as I never had to be touched, kissed or even looked at by Tate again.

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