Page 83 of Toxic Obsession

Chapter44

Quinn

When I woke the next morning, I was still in my jeans and long-sleeved shirt from the night before. I reached for Wynter, but she was nowhere to be found. Her side of the bed was wrinkled and the blankets had been kicked to the foot.

I sat up, wincing from the crick in my neck. Yawning, I placed my feet on the floor, and looked around at Wynter’s childhood room. When Janine had shown me around the day before she had asked me a million questions about my intentions with her sister, and I hadn’t had a chance to look around much. After being in Kyler’s room, I’d been too fucked up in the head to notice who she’d been before we met. Part of it I knew. Wynter had been lonely and angry, just like me. It’s probably the reason we found each other.

Walking to the large bulletin board on her wall, I looked at the images she had pinned to the cork. I smiled at a much younger Wynter holding a baby in her arms. Her mom was on one side of her, helping Wynter support the baby’s neck. I was guessing that little bundle wrapped in a pink blanket was Janine. Each one depicted a happy Wynter with a ton of friends. My pulse stuttered when I saw the pictures of her and Kyler. He had his arm flung around her shoulders and she was rolling her eyes as the camera snapped the moment. Several more of her and Kyler cluttered the board, but the one tucked into the corner grabbed my attention.

I snatched it up, making sure I was seeing it right. It was Kyler and Bell, laughing as she kissed him on his cheek. From the look in their expressions, they cared about each other. A lot. Confused, I tucked the picture back where I’d found it.

Wynter had shared that Kyler was gay, and that there was nothing going on between him and Bell. But was it possible he was bisexual and Wynter didn’t know? There was no denying the feelings between Bell and Kyler. And, even if they were just good friends, what the fuck happened to make him turn against her and kill her?

I rubbed my eyes, willing the flashes of memories to fucking leave. The door opened and I focused on a dressed and showered Wynter. That girl could even make baggy jeans and a black hoodie look sexy.

“Hey, you’re awake.”

“Yeah. Sorry for bailing on you last night.” I gathered her in my arms and gave her a quick peck. “I need to brush my teeth before I really kiss you.”

Wynter smiled. “The bathroom is all yours. I even saved some hot water so you could shower.”

“You’re the best.” I turned to the duffle bag that we’d packed and rifled through it until I found a pair of clean jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt. Hesitating, I glanced at Wynter who was busy picking up her clothes off the floor from last night. She seemed preoccupied, and I suspected it was due to the nature of our trip. “Hey, beautiful?”

“Yeah?” Her lips tipped up in a smile.

I cleared my throat. “I know we were going to look for the journal. At this point, I’m not even sure I want to know what he might have said. This is a lot. Are you okay if we leave earlier than planned?”

Wynter approached me and placed her hand on my cheek. The warmth of her touch sent my cock into overdrive.

Her mouth closed and opened as if she were about to say something, but then she stopped. “Yeah. I think we should leave as soon as we’re ready. It’s been a bitch of a few days, and I want to get back to Whitmore. If you don’t want to see Adam, you’re welcome to stay with me. The girls are gone for the long weekend, and I’m sure they won’t mind anyway.”

I tossed my clothes onto the mattress and pulled her against me. “I love you. Thanks for the offer. After I spend some time with Brody, I’ll probably take you up on that and sleep at your place. Hopefully Adam will be gone soon, and you can sneak back into my bed, but at some point, Brody is going to discover you.”

Her body shook with her laugh. “Sorry, it makes me nervous just thinking about it.”

I rubbed her back, soothing her the best I could. “I think Brody will be pretty open about who you are.”

Wynter looked up at me, our gazes colliding. “I hope so. He sounds like a great kid. He and Janine are the same age, right?”

“Oh shit. I hadn’t even thought about that, but yeah. Seventeen.”

She rolled her eyes. “We probably shouldn’t introduce them then. They might get along too well.”

I chuckled. “He has a girlfriend. I think it would be okay.” Eager to leave as soon as possible, I released Wynter and scooped up my clean clothes. “I’ll make it quick.”

“Okay. I’ll find my sister and talk to her while you’re getting cleaned up. She’ll understand about us leaving earlier than planned.”

I didn’t miss the sadness in Wynter’s expression, but I suspected that she was ready to leave, too. The shit with her mom had slapped her in the face the second she entered the house.

* * *

At around two that afternoon, I pulled into Wynter’s driveway but left the car running. “Thanks for taking me home with you. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day with anyone else.” I leaned over and pressed my mouth to hers, denying myself the opportunity to throw her over my shoulder and march into her house, then to her bedroom, where I would ravish every beautiful inch of her.

“Will I see you later?”

“Let me see how it goes. If Adam is still in town, then definitely expect me. I feel a little bad for ducking out on Brody, so he might want to hang and play video games.”

“Quinn, one day he’ll be grown, and you’ll have wished you’d had hung out more with him before he was working and married. Life changes too fast to ever take it for granted. I wished I’d done that with Ky, and I’m guessing you would have wanted more time with Bell.” She kissed me before she let herself out of the car and grabbed the duffle bag from the back seat. She bent over, poking her head back in. “I’m assuming you have plenty of clothes at home?”

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