Page 17 of Parker

Quinn blinked and found the bored-looking teenager behind the register staring at her expectantly. It took a few seconds for her to realize thatlookwas because the young girl was still waiting for her to take the receipt from her outstretched hand.

“Oh.” She took possession of the outlandishly long receipt. “Sorry.”

A half-nod was the girl’s only response before she turned her attention to the next customer in line. Not that Quinn could blame her.

It wasn’t the first time she’d been caught daydreaming lately.

Heat crawled up her neck as she snatched up the four plastic sacks holding her groceries and headed for the automatic door. Truth be told, it was thesubjectof those daytime fantasies that left her pale skin flushed, rather than embarrassment from appearing flighty.

You have bigger things to worry about than some guy you’ve never met.

The voice in her head was right. The last thing she should be thinking about was a man she hadn’t spoken to in over a month. A man she didn’t know.

You know him. The most important parts, anyway.

That time, her subconscious was wrong. Quinn knew very little about the man whose player name was “ByteMe69”.

He was smart. Funny. Knew code and could tech-talk with the best of them. But the thing that had drawn her to him more than anything was his ability to make her laugh.

In her whole life, Quinn couldn’t remember ever laughing as much as she did when she and ByteMe69 talked. Or as hard.

The man could seriously make her laugh harder than anyone else she’d ever met. Only shehadn’tmet him. Not really.

He wanted to, though. He wanted to meet in 3D, but you were too scared.

And just like that, her subconscious was back in the lead.

It was true, shehadbeen scared. Of a lot of things, really.

Quinn was afraid they’d meet, and he’d turn out to be a giant disappointment. A preppy, pretty boy who cared more about the products in his hair than her.

Or worse, they’d meet up, and she’d find herself face-to-face with an overweight, sixty-five-year-old man with a massive pot belly and a pull-out couch in his eighty-six-year-old mother’s basement.

She’d done her best to avoid picturing that last one, although the sneaky bastard still tried to pop through every now and then.

The most terrifying scenario of all, though—the one that had kept Quinn up at night just thinking about it—was if her nameless, faceless friend turned out to be every bit as sweet and funny as he was on the phone.

And as sexy as that deep, rumbly voice of his made him seem.

More than anything else, it wasthatfear that was the driving force behind her rejection of ByteMe69’s offer to meet in real life. Because a man like that would have no use for someone like her, so why waste either of their time?

You’re a jinx when it comes to love, baby girl. Just like me.

Quinn had ignored her mother’s wise words once before, and it had come back to bite her in the ass. Of course, that didn’t keep her traitorous mind from imagining her anonymous gaming partner as the quintessential perfect man…

Tall. Fit. Eyes she could get lost in. A smile that made her heart melt. A heart of his own that wasn’t tainted by greed.

Those were traits she pictured ByteMe69 possessing. When she allowed herself those few, stolen moments to remember a man she’d never met but knew she could fall for…that was always how she saw him.

His facial features and hair color would often change, as did his height and build. But the important stuff—those things that could only be found on the inside—always stayed the same.

And when she thought of a life filled with all the things she wanted but was never meant to have, it was his shadowed image Quinn saw standing by her side.

It’s been a month, Q. Pretty sure that ship has already sailed.

The nagging voice had a point, but that didn’t make it sting any less. Especially when Quinn thought of the last trait on her imaginary list.

A heart of his own that wasn’t tainted by greed.

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