Chapter 7 #2
Quincy breathed in deeply, closing his eyes, then let out his breath. “Sometimes I think that everything could be okay again. In a place like this, everything is so fresh and new. Nothing’s been ruined yet.”
He kept his eyes closed, and I frowned. The story was right there, written all over him, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It was already obvious to me that someone had hurt Quincy, but who and how?
After about a minute of silence, Quincy blew out the breath he’d been holding and opened his eyes. “I’m starving,” he said, turning back to me, grinning. “Let’s go find something to eat.”
“I saw a sign for another rest stop a few minutes before we stopped,” I said as we walked back to the RV. I wanted to take his hand and hold it in mine, hold him steady, forever. “We could try the whole fueling up and getting supplies thing again.”
“I bet they have a great bathroom,” he said, eyes flashing with mischief, as we climbed back into the RV.
“No more sex in rest stop bathrooms!” I said playfully, slipping into the driver’s seat.
Quincy just laughed as I turned the RV on and maneuvered back out onto the highway.
The rest stop was farther away than I’d thought, but I didn’t mind. Quincy seemed to be in a great mood again and chattered away about his younger siblings and some of the things they’d gotten up to over the years.
“You come from a big family?” I asked once I finally saw the off-ramp for the rest stop.
“Yeah,” Quincy said, just a hint of…something in his voice and expression. “Dad and Papa married young and loved the shit out of each other. They always wanted a lot of kids, and they got them.”
“Sounds wonderful,” I said with a sigh. “Like I said, I’m an only child,” I added.
“Yeah, you totally are,” Quincy said as I drove toward the RV parking area.
I couldn’t stop there and said, “Which means I’ve never been able to do anything I want to do. I’ve always had a legacy to live out. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the only child and everything is piled on your shoulders.”
“What did you want to do?” Quincy asked.
I shrugged, then had to focus on pulling into the parking space while leaving enough space on either side. “I don’t know if I would have gone into corporate law, for one thing,” I said. “I like the law. It makes sense to me. I like things that are orderly.”
“Oh,” Quincy said, sounding a little nervous.
I shot him a sideways look, then turned off the engine. “I like weird and interesting things, too,” I said. Immediately, I worried that I’d offend him by saying that. “I mean, like board games and musical theater.”
“Musical theater?” Quincy’s smile came back.
Good. Theater was a topic I was passionate about that wouldn’t offend Quincy or hurt his feelings.
“Absolutely,” I said, throwing all my enthusiasm into my explanation. “I was in a show in college, Annie, and I loved it. I wanted to major in musical theater and try to make a career of it, but Dad threatened to disown me and cut off my money.”
“That sucks,” Quincy said, a burst of fury in his expression. He blinked, then asked, “Are you any good?”
I don’t know why that question made my heart flutter and my cock fill a little, but I answered by soaring right into the opening lines of “Stars” from Les Miserable. “There, out in the darkness, a fugitive running, fallen from God, fallen from grace.”
Quincy caught his breath, his eyes going wide with…adoration?
“I’m really out of practice,” I said, too bashful to go on.
“Jack!” he said, reaching across and grabbing my arm. “You’re amazing! Your voice is like heaven.”
I blushed and glanced down. “I love singing,” I said with a shrug. “Not that I get to do much of it.”
“You have to do more,” Quincy insisted. “You have to be on stage. It’s where you were meant to be.”
I was meant to be with you.
The heartfelt feeling rose up in me like a crescendo. I tried to dismiss it as the effects of Quincy’s ongoing heat, but the idea wasn’t going anywhere.
“We should go stock up now,” I said.
Neither of us moved. More than anything, I wanted to kiss Quincy before getting out and walking into the rest stop with him like we’d been a couple for ages. He was mine, I knew it, and I needed to do whatever I could to stake my claim on him.
“Okay, let’s go,” I said after a good thirty seconds of us just staring at each other.
Quincy’s beaming smile turned into a look of misery, then into a neutral smile, so fast that I might have imagined it.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he said, then turned to push his way out through the passenger door.
The feeling of uncertainty that I’d had earlier came back and lodged in my gut. It stayed there as we entered the rest stop, which was far more crowded than the earlier one, since it was getting close to lunch.
Quincy seemed a little subdued by all the people. As we shopped in the convenience store, buying cheap, kind of nasty food that would sustain us for a day or two, he kept looking around, wariness in his eyes. It was like he expected someone to jump out at us and cause trouble at any second.
“It’s okay,” I said once we’d bought a bunch of things, then sat in the sunroom section of the dining area to eat a quick lunch. “No one is going to bother you, even if you are in heat. I will protect you with my life.”
Quincy sent me a heated, but still wobbly, smile. “I’m going to make things better for you,” he said with sudden determination. “I’m going to give you the life you’ve always wanted.”
I sucked in a breath and broke into a smile. I didn’t even know what that meant, but Quincy must have thought he knew. He drew his hand away from where he’d reached over the table to touch my arm and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
I would rather have had his touch than whatever he needed his phone for.
He had the right idea, though. I deliberately hadn’t checked my phone since we’d started out on our adventure. I had it with me, though, so I did the responsible thing and turned it on.
As expected, there were half a dozen missed calls from both my Dad and Mom, not to mention a mess of texts from each of them.
“Where are you? You’re not in your room.”
“Have you left Kincade Slopes?”
“Wherever you are, answer me and get back here immediately.”
Those were all from my dad.
One from Mom said, “Your father says you left the conference early for some reason. Where are you?”
I stared at my phone, wondering how long I could get away with ignoring them. I wasn’t anywhere near done feeling free yet.
“There,” Quincy said, sitting up with obvious excitement. “Oh my gosh, it couldn’t be more perfect. Look!”
He turned his phone to face me. The screen showed something that looked like a notice for the Norwalk Family Theater. It was an audition notice for their summer season.
Auditions were taking place this weekend, today.
“That’s—”
I didn’t know what to say. My heart beat faster.
All kinds of hope and possibility throbbed within me.
We were less than an hour away from Norwalk and the auditions were open call.
We could drive to the theater and I could try out for their company.
It would be a pain to commute back and forth between Barrington and Norwalk to be in the show, but I could get an apartment in Norwalk and work for the law office remotely. I could—
Quincy still held his phone up to me, so I saw the text that came through from someone who was probably family.
“Honey, where are you? You haven’t checked in, and I’m worried.”
“I think that’s a text for you,” I said, nodding to the phone.
Quincy turned his phone back to himself, tapped to read the full message, then frowned. “It’s nothing,” he said. “It’s my papa. He’s a worrier.”
I pressed my lips together and gripped the edge of the table like I was trying to hold onto this magical, wild adventure we were on. “My dad and mom have texted and tried to call me, too. They want me to go back.”
Quincy looked stricken. “Do you want to go back?” he asked, voice shaking.
“God, no!” I said, stretching my hand across the table so I could take his. “I want to be here with you. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I love it.”
I stopped just short of saying “I love you.” How could I love an omega I hadn’t known for a full twenty-four hours yet?
But I could love him. I knew I could. In fact, I was a little surprised that I hadn’t up and bonded with Quincy already, even though instant bonds and fated mates were little more than a fairy tale.
I wanted to, though. I wanted Quincy in my life forever.
“Good,” Quincy said, his impish smile returning. “So it’s decided. We’ll drive to the Norwalk Family Theater and you’ll audition for all the leads in their shows.”
I laughed and shrugged. “Okay.”
I couldn’t believe I was going to do this.
“Let’s go!” Quincy said, then stood. He wobbled as soon as he was on his feet, and his face flushed. With a laugh, he said, “Let’s go as soon as we deal with this heat wave.”
I grinned and stood, picking up our shopping with one hand and reaching for Quincy’s hand with the other. “I’m more than ready for this,” I said, tugging him away from the table and on to where we could find some privacy in the RV.
I was ready for whatever my wild, brilliant omega wanted from me.