Page 204 of Quinlan

“Men, right.” He huffs a laugh. “We’d love to talk some more, but we have to leave for our shifts. Is Anne there? She’s so busy with her job, we hardly get to talk to her anymore and I’d like to say hi to her too.”

“She’ll be here later, Dad.” Liam pauses. “You don’t have to go to work, you know.”

Neither of them does. Liam’s offered to pay for whatever they might need. He does that without their permission, sometimes.

Except this isn’t about the money for them. “We’ve been through this. We have tohelp, son.”

Liam shrugs. “When you feel like you’ve had enough—”

“You’ll be the first to know,” his mother chirps.

The front door to our penthouse opens.

“Bye, boys. Quinlan.”

The line goes dead before either of us gets the chance to tell them Anne’s here.

“I’m here. Wait, don’t hang up,” Anne calls out, running into the living room.

My sister ignores the loud silence. She’s too amped up to stop her jog to the sofa on her high heels. Her flowy, black tunic shirt flails around her. Her long, light brown hair bounces behind her back.

Her blue eyes zoom in on the phone in Liam’s hand, her full attention aimed at her target. When she’s laser-focused on something, she blocks out the rest of the world. It was a game I taught her when we were young. A lame trick to get her to think of anything else, just not food.

It came in handy later in life. That’s how she graduated early, landed a great position in a leading marketing company before she hit twenty-two.

She married a man who treats her like the queen she is for a whole other reason. Because she deserved the best, and Nick is it for her. The love of her life.

I taught her that too.

Quinlan pushes against my shoulders, trying to get off me while Anne’s attention is elsewhere. The only reason I’m allowing her to slip into Damien’s lap and then to the space he’s put between us is that Anne is my fucking sister.

She shouldn’t see Quinlan riding me. Clothes on or not.

But it hurts letting her go.

“Hey, Anne.” Liam smiles at her. “They hung up. They’ll be back from their shift tomorrow morning.”

She’s too close already. Too focused to hear what he’s saying.

“Are they there?” Breathless, she snatches the device. Brings it to her ear and groans at the silence. “Almost. My fucking boss, I swear.”

“Anne.” My hand covers hers that’s resting on the back of the sofa.

“One sec.” She holds up a finger. “I’ll call them now, just to say hi.”

“Anne,” Damien says, his voice soft.

I squeeze her hand. Liam stares up at her.

And then there’s Quinlan. I glance over my shoulder, finding her head tipped up, eyes on Anne. Curious and affectionate.

“Password protected, ugh, of course.” Anne throws Liam’s phone on the end of the sofa. She pulls her phone out of her black leather bag.

“Anne, could that wait?” My voice is as soft as Damien’s.

“Has anyone told you you’re fucking impatient? I said I need one sec, and that means—”

“We have a guest.”

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