Chapter 28
28
Q uinn woke more sated than he'd been...well, in his entire life.
Hanna lay curled up next to him, his arm around her body, and he liked the way he felt right now, this moment, and always with her. He liked having her near him. He liked having her sleep with him.
And he really liked making love to her. She rolled over and smiled. Her hair was tousled, her sleepy eyes stared into his. His heart thumped so loud he thought maybe she could hear it.
She leaned up and kissed his lips. "Do you want me to make you some breakfast?"
He stretched. "Well, it doesn't seem very nice of me to bring you over here and then make you cook."
"Well, you're not making me. I'm happy to do it. And besides, your kitchen is lovely. I'd love nothing more than to putter around in it for a while."
He chuckled. "All right, well, you go ahead and putter away. I'm gonna jump in the shower. "
He kissed her lips again and then slid out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. Just before he stepped into the bathroom, he saw her scoot off the bed and stretch. Now that was a lovely sight. She was cute in the morning. She was cute all the time, but she was really cute in the morning. He jumped in the shower before his cock had other ideas, and tried to get his thoughts on today. He was going to find out what the hell Tisha was up to. Then he'd call Sid, to see if they'd want to have dinner with them tonight. And then he'd head off to the barracks to see how they were doing with the demolition.
After his shower, he dressed and headed out to the kitchen. The delicious aroma of eggs and bacon cooking called to him.
His stomach growled. "That smells delicious."
Hanna turned and smiled. She was wearing one of his t-shirts and damned it didn't look adorable on her. It hung down to her knees, but she didn't have a bra on, and her nipples pushed out the fabric in just the right way. He'd never look at that t-shirt the same again.
"Thank you. Do you like coffee in the morning?"
"I do."
"Good." She poured him a cup. "Cream, sugar, both, none?"
He chuckled. "Cream only. Thank you."
She set the creamer in front of him and then turned to the stove to turn the bacon in the pan.
They ate breakfast. Hanna took a shower, put on clean clothes, and then they took off in his vehicle.
They drove to her place. "So you're sure you want to meet Sid and Grace tonight? I'll call Sid and see if they're available."
"Yes, of course. I'd love to meet them. "
"Sounds good. Also, just so you know, I'm going to have a discussion with Tisha today to find out what the hell she was doing."
Hanna's shoulders dropped a little bit. "Okay, well, I'm nervous about that, but..."
"What are you nervous about?"
"I just hope she wasn't playing me. I'm going to feel like such a fool."
"Well, we'll see what she's got to say. Don't worry about anything until I speak with her."
He pulled into her driveway and carried her bag inside. She could have done it herself, but he wanted to check her place, make sure it was okay, and at least give her the feeling that she was secure. And he liked doing things for her.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay and follow you to the bakery?"
She chuckled. "No, I'm fine. You go ahead. You've done so much already."
He checked each room in her house. "All clear, sweetheart." He kissed her lips quickly, wrapped his arms around her, and held her close. Stepping back, he kissed her once more and strode out the door.
His thoughts now turned dark as he thought about talking to Tisha. On the ride up to her place, he tried keeping his anger in check. His thoughts were stormy. He assumed she was probably waiting for him to show up, anyway. He pulled into the driveway, marched up to the front door, and knocked firmly three times.
She opened the door and stared at him. She crossed her arms over her chest, and cocked a hip to the side. "What do you want?"
"Well, Tisha, I want to know why you were following me last night, and how in the hell you knew that I was at Hanna's parents’ place?"
He pushed past her to go inside, which was so not like him, but he was irritated as hell, and he wasn't going to give her the opportunity to slam the door in his face.
He stood in the foyer, hands in his pockets, trying to look casual, but his eyes bore into hers. "Well?"
She huffed out a deep breath. "For Christ's sake, Jared told me that you were seeing her, and I happened to see you driving with her in your truck last night, so I followed you. And when I saw where you were going, I decided to hang out and see how long you were there. So I parked at the end of the road."
"So you sat down at the end of the road for nearly three hours watching the Valentine's house just to see how long I was going to be there? You didn't have anything else to do but sit and wait."
She sucked in an irritated breath. "I didn't have anything else to do, no. And yes, I sat there, and I watched."
"Have you been following Hanna?"
"No."
She said she feels like someone's been following her. "Well, I haven't. I mean, well once I did."
"So you were following her?"
"I said once. Once I did."
"Tisha, for crying out loud..."
"Look, this is new. We've been divorced for five years. You haven't dated anyone significantly in all that time. A couple dates here and there, but that was it. And this is different, and I don't know. I just, I don't know, I guess I, it's different."
A light wind would have blown him over right now .
"How in the ever-loving fuck do you know I've had any dates? Are you following me?"
Tisha shrugged, which made him want to chew glass.
"All right, so it's different. But five years, Tisha, five years we've been divorced."
"I know, I know, I know it."
He sucked in a deep breath. "So tell me this. Did you know that Hanna and I had been dating when you invited her over for lunch last week?"
He watched her suck her lips into her mouth. Her eyes darted around the room, but not at him. And he knew the answer before she finally said it. But he stood there and waited. She needed to say it.
"Yes, I did. Jared told me that he thought you were dating, and so I called her to see if she wanted to have lunch. As a matter of fact, she told me she had had a date, but she wouldn't tell me with who. And so I felt like she was hiding something from me or being dishonest because, after all, she was dating my ex-husband."
"Well, Tisha, she didn't know until last night I was your ex-husband. How about that? She wasn't hiding anything from you."
"That's ridiculous. This is a small town. Everybody knows everybody."
"Well, she hasn't been in town for a while. You changed back to your maiden name, Barkley. She had no way of knowing. And for the record, she's not nosy enough to check around and see who was married to who, when, and for how long while she was gone. Unlike you, she has a lot to do. She's running a business. She doesn't have time to sit on somebody's street for three fucking hours and watch what they're doing."
"Oh, knock it off. It was one time. Big deal, so what? "
"Yeah, big deal, so what? Stop following me, and for fuck's sake, you better not follow her. And also, no more house renovation projects. Not from my pocketbook, anyway. You want to do it? Do it on your own. If you're gonna take me back to court to get some money from me, it's all on your own dime now. Got that?"
"Yes, I've got it. Fine."
"And I told Hanna, I don't have a problem if you two want to be friends. It makes it easier on the kids if you are, but I've told her that you are manipulative and deceitful. So if you're expecting to get any information from her about our relationship, know this. It won't happen. If you want to know something about my relationship, you ask me and me only. And if I think it's something that you need to know, I will tell you. If not, that means it's none of your fucking business. Got it?"
"Got it. Get out of my house," she yelled.
"Gladly." He turned and stalked toward the door and right out to his truck. He didn't look back. He heard the door slam when he was three feet away. He didn't care. He hopped in his truck, drove down the road, and gave himself some time to calm down. He wouldn't call Sid until a little bit later when he'd had a minute to chill. He didn't need to throw this stuff on Sid just yet. They'd maybe chat about it later, but not now.