Page 32 of Chasing Temptation
“Stalking much?” I ask with a laugh, assuming they heard our footsteps and ran to find us.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Erica’s eyes are a little wet as she runs at me and wraps her arms around my waist.
It hurts, but I don’t give a fuck. Returning her hug, I drop a kiss to the top of her head.
“Okay, enough of you. I need to meet your girl properly.”She wipes the tears staining her cheeks that are probably courtesy of her pregnancy hormones.
Erica turns to Quinn and none of us miss the redness of her cheeks as she’s reminded of the first time they met. Quinn might be embarrassed, but I know Erica better than that and she won’t give a fuck about finding us mid-fuck. It won’t faze her in the slightest.
She opens her arms and Trey and I watch as Erica pulls Quinn into her embrace. She says something in Quinn’s ear that we’re too far away to hear, but whatever it is has Quinn looking up at me over Erica’s shoulder. Her eyes are soft and her smile is easy, and I relax for the first time since she walked away from me the morning she claimed to need space. I didn’t realise it was still eating at me, but having her here, in the arms of one of my best friends, it really settles inside me that this could be it.
“We should leave you to get sorted,” Erica says, releasing Quinn. “I just needed to see for myself that you were okay.”
“Stay for dinner?” I ask without thinking. This living with someone and having to ask their opinion is going to take some time to get used to. It’s just that now I’m surrounded by my people once again, I’m not ready for them to leave quite yet. My eyes fly to Quinn—I’m about to apologise when she nods.
“Yes, I’m starving. What about Lauren and Ben, should we ring them?”
There’s a moment of silence as all eyes turn on me. Quinn’s just curious about inviting more of my friends while both Erica and Trey smile at me with knowing eyes. They’ve both realised just how far gone I am for this girl. She gets me. She knows that the only thing missing right now is my best friend and that, after everything we’ve just been through, I need this. I need my people, and I need to be normal. More than that, I need her to be part of my normal.
“I’m on it,” Erica announces, pulling her phone out and turning away slightly.
I reach my hand out, and Quinn walks over and gently wraps her arms around my waist.“Thank you.”
“I know how much you missed them. It’s nice to see you smile like you did when they turned up.”
“I smile more than I ever have with you.”
“I know, and I love it. But they’re your family. I get it.”
“And what about yours?”
“My family? I don’t have a lot of that these days.” The sadness in her voice is like a physical pain to my chest. I want to talk to her about her mum but right now is not the time for that. Once the dust is settled, maybe I’ll bring it up.
“I was thinking of Eddie. You want to invite him to join us?”
“Really?” Her brows draw together in confusion. “I didn’t think you liked him.”
I think for a moment to find the right words to describe my feelings for Eddie. Is he a judgemental prick? Yes. But he’s helped Quinn out when she’s needed it the most, and he had my back when we went after her. Kind of. But if he means something to Quinn, he’s important to me. End of.
“I don’t really know him, but I know you, and if you say he’s a good guy, then I’ll give him all the time in the world to try to prove it.”
“Thank you.”
“If it wasn’t for him, I’d never have found you.” A shudder runs up my spine as I wonder what might have happened had that been the case.
Quinn goes over to find her phone, which is dead after being abandoned in her flat for over two weeks.
“You want to use mine?” Taking it from my hand, she finds his number and lifts it to her ear. “You think he’ll be able to cope with all the ink?” I nod over to Trey, although most of his is hidden beneath his shirt. Ben’s, however, will be very much on display for Eddie to disapprove of.
“I’m hoping you might have smashed a few of his preconceived perceptions after saving my life.”
I swallow down the emotion that statement drags up. Is that what I did? Would he have gone that far?
Seeing where my thoughts are, Quinn places her hand on my forearm and gives me a little smile as the sound of the call connecting fills my ears.
Not more than thirty minutes later Eddie follows Lauren and Ben into the flat. Thankfully, Trey and Erica ran downstairs to get everyone something to drink seeing as our kitchen is basically empty. Before long we’ve all placed our food orders and are sitting back on the sofas with drinks in hand. Erica sulks as she looks at the glasses of wine in both Quinn and Lauren’s hands seeing as she’s unable to drink and has to put up with a glass of cloudy lemonade. Eddie looks surprisingly at home with a beer as he talks to Trey about the education system. It’s not something I thought Trey would be all that interested in, but I guess he needs to be seeing as he has two teenage daughters who’ll be going through it all soon.
“So, are you going to be leaving us for better things once you’ve got a few certificates behind you?” Ben asks. He doesn’t look as happy about the idea as I’m sure he would have done not so long ago. He hated me when he first came back, and rightly so. Lauren made it look like I’d stepped into his place when the side of the bed he abandoned was barely cold, but we’ve managed to build some kind of friendship now that Lauren’s in his arms once again.
