Page 7 of Waiting For You

Hell no. Not going there.

Even if he is…pretty. Like a young Johnny Depp. I would have crushed so hard on him if he was around when I was a teen. Hell, if he’d been around back then, maybe Karen and I never would have messed around.

But then there’d be no Joshua.

I might have fucked up with her, but I don’t regret it one bit. I’d do it all over again just to have Joshua, to be his dad.

I open the door to the convenience store for Quinn, and he strides through, those long legs eating up the linoleum floor as he moves straight to the candy aisle.

I wrench my eyes away from him and make my way toward the coffee. I groan in near relief when I see the selection. Thank god for caffeine. Now I can be anxiousandhave a palpitating heart at the same time.

Win-win.

After I’ve filled up an extra-large coffee cup, I move to the food aisle to pick out a few snacks, something that will keep my fingers and mouth busy for the next few hours as we chug upstate to the Mackinac Bridge and over to St. Ignace.

When we’re back in the truck, Quinn buckles in and leans back, popping open a bag of M&Ms.

“Want some?” he asks as I pull us back onto the highway.

“Nope, got my own stuff,” I say, sipping on my coffee.

Quinn sighs, resting his head back against the headrest. More of his hair has fallen out of its elastic and I wonder why he even bothers to pull it back.

It would look good splayed over his shoulders.

In an objective way, not a creepy way.

For fuck’s sake.

“So, what’s the plan once we get to St. Ignace?”

“We can set up camp, detach the trailer, and drive around? Grab dinner?”

Quinn tosses some more M&Ms in his mouth. “Sounds good…” he says, glancing out at the passing scenery. “You have an itinerary? Joshua mentioned something about it.”

He did? Shit, I didn’t think he was listening when I’d rattled that info off.

“Yeah, I bought a book. It’s on my phone.”

He reaches for it, holding it in his palm. “Passcode?”

I give it to him, because really, what do I have to hide?

Nothing, that’s what.

“Just like that?” he asks. “You’re not worried I’ll find filthy pictures on here, secret drug deals, something not for my eyes?”

“Nope,” I say as he chuckles, swiping around on my phone.

“It’s in the Kindle app,” I tell him, and Quinn peeks over at me.

“Yeah, I figured. I’m just snooping.”

“Yeah, well, snoop away. Nothing exciting.”

“Huh, well, how disappointing. No naked pictures, but you do have Grindr on here.”

Oh shit, I forgot about that. Kind of embarrassing that I kept it, actually. “Hasn’t been used in a long while.”

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