Chapter Eleven Moving, Tires & Cheesecake
Tenn pulled up to Quinn’s place at twenty-after-six. He had gotten off at five but had to make a quick stop before coming here. He grabbed a bag from the backseat, bounded onto the platform that served as her house's front porch, and rang the bell. A few seconds later, he heard the lock click, and Quinn's voice came over the speaker, telling him she was in the kitchen. He smiled and let himself in, finding her standing at the island chopping garlic as ground beef cooked on the stove behind her. She looked up and smiled at him as he came in and laid the bag on the counter. “Hey! How was the rest of your afternoon?”
“Boring. Sorry, I took longer than expected; I have a good reason.” Tenn smiled at her.
“Don't worry about it. I told you not to rush. Quill won't be here until close to seven, and my new bed arrives between seven and eight.” She finished chopping the garlic and turned to dump it in the pan with the ground beef as she spoke and started to stir.
“Maybe I wanted more time alone with you.” Tenn watched red stain her cheeks, and she ducked her head with a smile.
“So, what's the good reason?”
“I had to pick up dessert.” He pulled a casserole dish out of the bag. “Can I put it in your fridge?”
“You brought dessert?” Abandoning the ground beef, she came over to look. Tenn grinned as she got a look of childlike joy on her face. “Is that... blueberry lemon cheesecake?” She whispered.
“It is.”
“You made me a blueberry lemon cheesecake?” She looked up at him, her green eyes shining.
“Well, no.” Tenn admitted as he shook his head, not wanting her to think he was capable in the kitchen and only to let her down later. “I called my sister-in-law after you left and asked her to make you a blueberry lemon cheesecake. I wouldn't have had the time, never mind the skills. I'm a terrible cook.”
“You asked your sister-in-law to make me a cheesecake?” Her voice was a mixture of wonder and disbelief, and Tenn started to laugh.
“Yeah, she was very curious and asked a lot of questions when I went to pick it up. Took me a little while to get out of there.”
Quinn held out her hands, and he gave it to her, grinning when she put it in the fridge almost reverently. “What did you tell her?”
“That I was helping a friend out, and you had already cooked for me once before, so if she would make her famous no-bake cheesecake for me with blueberry and lemon flavours, I would take the boys to the waterpark for an afternoon to give her a break. She asked me how many I needed.” He chuckled. She would have made him a dozen if it meant a whole afternoon to herself without having to worry about the kids.
Quinn laughed and stirred the sauce she was making into the ground beef, lowering the temperature so it would simmer and reduce. “Well, thank her profusely for me.”
“Taking six boys between the ages of eight and twelve to the waterpark isn't thanks enough?” Tenn raised an eyebrow as he sat down on the other side of the island.
“She has six boys between the ages of eight and twelve?” Quinn looked up in horror.
“No, she has an eight-year-old, a ten-year-old, and a twelve-year-old that all want to take a friend because they're at the ages where the twelve-year-old is too cool to be seen with younger kids, the ten-year-old doesn't want to be left alone with the eight-year-old and the eight-year-old just wants to be included.”
“Right.” Quinn shook her head. “Well, since you agreed to do it so I could have cheesecake, if you'd like company, I'll go with you. I love kids.” She added the chopped potatoes she had been blanching to the air fryer, turned it on, and pulled out the ingredients to make the honey butter sauce.
“Really?” Tenn's eyes lit up. He’d have to introduce her to Del and Trisha first, but he was pretty sure they’d be okay with her coming just so there was an extra pair of eyes on the boys. “I'd be happy to have you join us. So, Joel's claims of you not wanting children were a lie?”
“I started getting my period at nine, and I have a genetic predisposition to going into early menopause, plus my anorexia fucked things up. I had a narrow window to get pregnant, and Joel never told me he had a vasectomy until it was too late.” She focused on mixing the sauce. “My doctor said I have less than a two percent chance of getting pregnant now. I wanted kids.” She shrugged. “I've made my peace with the idea that I won't get them.”
“What about adoption?” Tenn watched her sadly. Joel had taken a lot from her.
“Joel refused to raise a child that wasn't biologically his.” She picked up her phone when the doorbell sounded and pressed a button. “It's open.”
“I heard back from my department head, and he's thrilled with the idea of a joint venture between the Museum and Visual Art Library, gave us the go-ahead, and is going to look into moving some funding around,” Tenn said to change the subject as he heard Quill open the door, grumbling about her leaving the front door unlocked.
“Tenn, that's amazing!” Quinn hugged him. “So, no pressure now, huh?”
“Well, the real pressure came down when he said if it's well attended and received, he wants us to do it yearly.”
“Oh yeah. There's the pressure.” Quinn laughed as Quill came into the kitchen.
“Sorry, I'm late. Chrissy had a bit of an emergency.” He apologised as he tossed his keys, wallet and phone onto the counter next to the pantry.
“Is she okay?” Quinn looked up quickly, looking concerned.
“Yeah, she struck something on the way to her daughter's dance class and popped a tire. Her ex wouldn't answer his phone; she doesn't have AMA or anything, so I brought her my car so she could get Kaia to the class, put the spare on, and came here.” He shrugged, and Quinn smiled and winked at Tenn.
“If you're not careful, you'll end up with a premade family.” She teased. “What size tires does the car take?
“It's the same as your old car.” Quill furrowed his brow as he thought. “The Kia Rio hatchback thing.”
“It's your lucky day, Porcupine. I still have the summer tires from mine in the garage. They should get her through until the winter; they were only used one summer.”
“Really?” Quill perked up. “I was gonna take hers to see if it could be patched; she wouldn't let me pay for new ones. You don't mind?”
“Not at all; I have no use for them anymore. I meant to post them to the “Too Good to Dump” page on Social media, but I never got around to it. They're on the rims too. You should be able to just swap them out.” She walked over to her purse and threw him her car keys. “Switch the cars around in the garage and use the compressor.”
“Give me a hand, Tenn?” Quill caught the keys, grabbed his again and started to leave the kitchen.
“Yeah, sure.” Tenn nodded and stood up to follow him.
“Dinner will be ready when you come back,” Quinn promised. “And the bed should be delivered soon too.”
Quill stopped and Tenn almost ran into him. “Let's dismantle the old one first and get it out the way then, the tires can wait until after.”
Quill led the way down the hall to the bedroom. “So why did she suddenly want a new bed anyway?” He asked as he opened the door to the master bedroom. Tenn chuckled and launched into what happened the night before as they moved the mattress and box spring into the garage, then showed him the video of Viki and Joel falling out the window. Quill roared with laughter as his brother-in-law somersaulted out the window. “Fuck that's amazing. Send that to me.” After, they switched the cars around and changed out the tires, and Quill told Tenn about Chrissy.
“I'm busy; she's busy. The kid's dad or grandmother takes her every weekend, and we spend Friday or Saturday night together. Sometimes we get the whole weekend, but it's rare.”
“How long have you been doing this?”
“Little over a year, I think. It works for us. Sort of.” Quill sighed and seemed a little sad about it.
“Sort of?” Tenn raised his eyebrow.
“I'd like to be able to help her out a little more. She's a struggling single mom and very determined not to take handouts. I think her ex gave in to pressure from his mom to give her a grandchild but wasn't ready for the commitment or to be a dad. He takes her and does all the fun things with her but lets his mom do all the actual parenting when Kaia is with him. Basically, he wants to be the fun uncle. He moved back in with his mom and took a part-time job to reduce the amount of child support he had to pay, and his mom finances the rest of his life. The grandmother pays to put Kaia in all these after-school activities and classes but doesn't help with anything else, leaving Chrissy to do all the transport and attend everything. Personally, I think it's to keep her so busy she can't date because she wants Chrissy and her son to get back together.”
Quinn appeared in the doorway and announced dinner was ready. They barely sat down when the bed arrived, and they got it inside, went back to eat, and then went back into the bedroom. Quinn dug out some boxes and totes and began dumping Joel's things in them. When she filled the box, Quill or Tenn would take it next door and stack it against the wall in the spare room. They finished that quickly, and Quill put a new lock on the master bedroom door.
After they finished, Quinn spooned up bowls of the cheesecake, and they sat out on the back patio to eat it, enjoying the cooler spring night air after all the physical activity.
“Oh, my god. This is incredible. I can see why you said her famous no-bake cheesecake.” Quinn enthused. “Will she give me the recipe?”
“No.” Tenn laughed as Quinn frowned. “She's pretty possessive over it.”
“Don't pout; you won't give anyone your carrot cake recipe.” Quill laughed at Quinn's expression.
“I'm willing to offer a trade.” Quinn decided. “I'll make the carrot cake and send it back with you, and when she wants the recipe, offer her the trade.”
“Oh no.” Tenn shook his head with a grin. “Don't involve me in your negotiations.”
“I better get Chrissy her car back.” Quill stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the tires, Q.”
“Oh, no problem. Say hi for me.” Quinn smiled and stood up with him.
“I'll give you a hand with the clean up and be on my way too.” Tenn followed them into the house. When Quill left, Quinn turned to Tenn and pulled out her phone.
“I didn't think to check the ring cam yesterday when we realised Viki and Joel were here. Look what I found.” She handed him her phone, and Tenn watched as Joel and Viki came running up to the door; when they were out of sight of the street, Joel pushed her up against the door, kissed her sloppily as he unlocked it, and then they entered, closing the door behind them. Tenn's lip curled in disgust. “God, it's like watching two squid try to assert their dominance.”
“Yeah, it was gross, but Joel didn't try to erase anything; all the other videos are still stored on the cloud. It's like he forgot we have a security system.”
“Or they're so cocky about not getting caught; they don't care anymore.” Tenn shrugged. “Either way, it's more ammunition for us.” Quinn nodded and put aside a meal for Joel while Tenn loaded the dishwasher. He frowned when he saw her do it and had to ask. “Why are you still looking after him?”
Quinn looked down at the plate she was covering with tinfoil. “I'm just used to it, I guess. It's a habit, not something I want to do.” She smiled. “If he touches my cheesecake, I'll throw fists. Thanks for helping me.”
“Anytime, Quinn.” Mindful of the camera, he hugged her and said good night in the entranceway.
“See you Wednesday?”
“Not tomorrow?” He teased, and she laughed.
“You're gonna get tired of me.”
“I don't think so.”