Page 18 of More Than Words
“Oh,The Eye of the World,” Quinn said, noticing the book in my hand.
“You’ve read it?”I raised my brow.
“Nope.”She shook her head.“I don’t think it’s really my style.”She shrugged and flopped back, throwing her legs over the arm of the chair as she flipped the cover of the new book open.“But it’s my dad’s favorite.”
Something clicked in my brain.I looked down at the book and back at Quinn.“Your dad?”
“Yup.”She didn’t look up, already absorbed in her new read.“He rereads the whole series sometimes.Like from the very beginning.”
“He does what?”
With a sigh, Quinn lowered her book.“I know, right?It’s intense.Those are massive books, and there are so many of them.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Only, I haven’t seen those books since we moved.He probably hasn’t even unpacked them yet, he’s been so busy.”
I swallowed hard and lowered the book.“What about your mom?”I’d never directly asked Quinn about her parents.It didn’t seem my place, but now…
Her eyes clouded and her jaw flexed.“My mom’s even busier.But she doesn’t live with us.When they got divorced, she stayed in the city ’cause of work.All my friends are there, too.But Dad wanted me to be closer to my uncles.”She shrugged and the tension seemed to relax.“And they’re cool.”
Uncles.Single dad.Busy.
It all made sense.I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.
“Your dad,” I said slowly, “his name is Ethan?”
“Yeah.”She looked at me as if I’d just grown an arm out of my head.“You didn’t know that?He’s your neighbor.”She waved toward our shared wall.
“Well, I knew that Ethan was my neighbor.”Did I ever.“But I didn’t know he was your dad.”
Quinn offered up a shrug, already lost in her new book.
I stood there as all the pieces slid into place.
And I still had so many questions.
Mainly, how had Inotknown?
There might be more to this man who’d somehow charmed his way into driving me crazy.
And I wasn’t sure what was more dangerous—that, or the way I couldn’t help myself from wanting to know more.
ChapterSix
Ethan
“Quinn!You alive in there?”I tossed a blanket over the back of the couch and peeked down the hallway but there was still no sign of her.
“Almost done!”Quinn called from her bedroom.
Almost donelikely meant she’d stuffed everything under her bed and called her roomclean.
I smiled to myself, knowing I wouldn’t do anything to press the issue.I’d learned to pick my battles when it came to parenting, and an immaculate room was not a battle I was willing to go to war over.
I tossed a throw pillow aside and grabbed the remote to queue up the streaming app and my movie selection.It was my night to pick the movie, which meant Quinn would roll her eyes, mumble something about how old I was, and then get way too invested by the twenty-minute mark.
Besides, I knew she’d love my latest selection.
