Page 109 of Waiting For You

Neither are talking, but god, they’re both here.

Water dribbles down my chin and I swipe at it, feeling suddenly so damn inadequate. How did I ever manage to be a father? I’m not qualified. I should have taken classes or gotten some kind of book. I should have tried harder.

“Hey,” I say, and Joshua lifts his hand in greeting.

I brush the moisture from my shirt and make my way toward my boyfriend and my son.

It seems they worked things out between them because they’re not fighting. That’s good, right? That means they’ve talked, that they’re friends again. God, I hope so.

“Came to talk,” Joshua says and then shifts on his feet. “Came to say that I talked to Mom and she told me some stuff.”

My heart pounds in my chest. “What kinds of stuff?”

Quinn moves toward me, reaching down and taking ahold of my hand. He squeezes it and Joshua’s eyes dart to the entwined fingers and then back up to my eyes.

“Still weird,” he murmurs, but then shakes his head. “Anyways, yeah, Mom told me all the shit you’ve done for me over the years. I mean, she didn’twillinglytell me. I had to pry it out of her, but yeah…I didn’t realize.”

I feel my eyes start to sting and I blink them furiously. Cannot cry. Will not blubber.

“I’m sorry you were left out,” he says, and I swipe at my cheeks. Well, hell. There I go. Can’t stop me now.

“And yeah, Quinn and I talked. Just…I’m fine with it…or I will be. Just don’t fuck when I’m around. It was…I can’t unsee that shit, you know?”

“Yeah,” I say, and Quinn leans over and hands me a tissue. I blow my nose, and blow it again, trying to contain my emotions, but I feel so fucking relieved.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” I say and my voice cracks. “I didn’t plan for it to happen…”

“Yeah, well, I guess you deserve to be happy…Hailey helped me see that. After everything Mom told me…it wasn’t fair to you. We weren’t fair to you. I get if you don’t want to help me with college—”

“I am helping you pay for college,” I interject, my tone firm. “I just wanted your mom to help too.”

“Yeah,” he says and runs his hand through his hair. “We’ll see if that happens.”

We stare at each other, and I feel my shoulders sag. “Tell me if it doesn’t. I can find a way.”

He nods as Quinn leans into me. My hand goes around his waist, and I press my face to his temple, inhaling him.

“You want to stay and hang out? We can order food? Play some games?” Quinn asks, and Joshua shrugs.

“Um, yeah, let me get Hailey. Maybe we can stay for a bit. Don’t want to see too much PDA from you two, though. Need to slowly work myself toward all that, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Quinn says, and Joshua smirks at him.

After Joshua moves outside, Quinn stands before me, his hands on my cheeks.

“It all worked out,” he says softly. “I told you.”

“Thank you. For not giving up on me.”

“Never,” he says softly. “I told you I’d wait. I’d wait a lifetime for you.”

I blink, my eyes stinging once more, and I pull him in for a long-drawn-out kiss. When we pull apart, his lips are wet and red, and god, I want him. But we need to restrain ourselves because Joshua is going to come back inside any minute and I don’t want to scare him away. Not when I’ve just gotten him back.

“I think things are gonna be okay,” I whisper, and Quinn nods, his hands holding me tightly.

“Yeah, Grey. I think they fucking are.”

Epilogue

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