Chapter Twenty-Two Maybe Overstepping
Quinn got home just as a black Kia Rio hatchback backed out of her driveway. She pulled in and watched curiously as the Kia pulled back in behind her. Getting out of her car, she waited as a woman with shoulder-length white-blonde hair in a ponytail got out and approached her.
“Hi, sorry to bother you. My name is Chrissy Snow, and I think my friend got tires for my car from you. I was wondering if you had my old ones, and you can take these back.” She licked her lips nervously and stood holding her left elbow with her right hand loosely.
Quinn studied her. She was pretty, with big blue eyes, a button nose, and full lips. She also looked very stressed, and Quinn instantly felt for her. “Come have tea with me.”
“I'm sorry?” The shock on the poor woman’s face almost made her giggle as she turned to head inside.
“Have tea with me,” Quinn repeated as she walked up to the door. “Or coffee, whatever; I have both.”
Chrissy followed her automatically. “I don't really have time...” Quinn nodded as she entered the code for the door and opened it, stepping inside.
“When do you have to pick up Kaia?” Quinn asked as she hung up her keys and led the way to her kitchen.
“How do you know about Kaia?” Chrissy scrambled after her, sounding absolutely bewildered.
Quinn smiled at her reassuringly. “Quill told me. Tea or coffee?”
“Tea.” That got her attention, and she sat down at the island. “Quill told you about me?”
“Quill tells me everything.” She put on the kettle and pulled open a drawer, revealing an impressive tea collection in tins. “Green, herbal, or black?”
“Black, please.”
“Honey? Milk? Sugar?” Quinn pulled out the tins of loose Lady Grey tea and citrus-flavoured green tea and began measuring it into tea balls.
“Milk.” Chrissy watched her, visibly curious. “Everything?”
“Not details about sex or anything. We're close, but not weirdly close.” She pulled the milk out of the fridge and put it and the mug with the tea ball in front of Chrissy. “Your tires were taken to the garbage dump. They weren't safe, and the tires I gave Quill should be good until winter.”
“Look, it was very generous of you to give them to me, but I can't accept four new tires from someone I don't know.” The nervousness was back, and Quinn wondered why.
“I see. Didn't Quill tell you I was going to post them on the Too Good to Dump Social media page? I just forgot, so I gave them to him, and what he did with them was up to him.”
“You really drove a Kia Rio?” Skepticism dripped from every word, and Quinn suddenly realized what was going on.
“Yeah, for twelve years, until it died on me two years ago.” She nodded and smiled fondly. “God, I loved that car; it was the first big thing I ever bought. When it finally died, I was looking at a Sportage or Sorento, but my husband is a salesman at Rhyme Porsche and insisted on me buying the Cayenne, between the employee discount Rhyme gave me and the money I had managed to save for a down payment, I was able to negotiate a monthly payment that wouldn’t break me.”
“Oh.” Chrissy looked around. “I just assumed you were...”
“Rich and looking down on you?” Quinn laughed. “No, I'm a librarian at the Visual Arts Resource Library. My husband is a car salesman and not a good one. Quill bought and renovated the house, and I pay him much less rent every month than someone else would.”
“He never told me that. He was showing me around the neighbourhood when we first met and pointing out the houses he had designed and renovated, and he just said this one was his twin sister's.” She swallowed, looking guilty. “So, he's like this with everyone?”
“No, only with people he really likes,” Quinn smirked. “Did he offer you a house?”
“Yeah,” Chrissy said softly. “I told him no. I didn't want to feel like I owed him.”
“Listen. I got bad news last week, and Quill gave me his credit card and told me clothes were on him.” She filled Chrissy's mug with hot water, then her own, adding a little honey to hers.
“You're his sister; I'm just the girl he fucks on weekends.” Chrissy’s cheeks were red, and she avoided Quinn’s eyes by focusing on adding milk to her tea.
“Quill isn't an emotional person, and he doesn't always know how to express how he feels verbally; he shows he cares by gifts and acts of service. Trust me. He cares about you, and you aren't just the girl he fucks on weekends. Is he just the guy you fuck on weekends?” Quinn couldn’t help herself. She wanted to know how Chrissy felt about Quill.
“No. I just can't give him anymore.” Chrissy shook her head and laughed self-consciously. “I'm basically Kaia's bitch for the foreseeable future. Her grandmother keeps putting her in activities, and I only get a break when she takes her for the weekend.”
“He's okay with that; he'd make more time for you if that's what you wanted, but he's okay focusing on Q.” Quinn tilted her head at her, wondering about the situation with her daughter. “Does Kaia want to be in all those activities?”
“Personally, I think she's overwhelmed and needs a break, but she insists she wants to do them.” Chrissy sipped her tea and shook her head. “I don’t want to limit her, and if her grandmother is willing to pay…” She shrugged. “I feel like I need to do my part by making sure she’s able to get to everything.”
“Or does she feel like she has to because she doesn't want to disappoint her grandmother?” Quinn sipped her tea. “I work with young adults, not kids, but the number of them I've talked off the proverbial ledge by telling them it's not their job to manage their parents' emotions is astronomical. The ones who listen to me are so happy when they finally say no to the extracurriculars their parents want them to do. The ones who don't almost always burn out within a semester.”
“I've never asked her that,” Chrissy admitted. “I’ve asked her if she’s sure she wants to do all of it, and she insists she does, so I don’t argue.”
“The other side of that is you're her mom; sometimes you have to decide what's best for her. Tell her to pick two she wants to continue, but she has to drop the rest. I'm willing to bet she won't argue, and it will tell you what she's really serious about.”
Chrissy smiled at her as she considered her advice. “Quill didn't say you were a mom.”
“I'm not; I just know what Quill would have wanted growing up and how much he did that he hated because he didn’t want to disappoint our dad. I had to push him to switch in our first year of university. He was the first student I talked off the ledge.”
“You know,” Chrissy looked her over with a small smile. “He talks about you a lot, and I’ve asked if I could meet you several times. He kept saying, “Soon,” or “We're not there yet.” I kind of thought he was ashamed of me or thought you wouldn’t approve of him dating a single mom.
“Nope” Quinn shook her head and smiled at her. “You make him happy, so I’m happy for him. He wasn't ready to share you, that's all.” Seeing the look of confusion on her face, she elaborated. “Ninety percent of the time, when we introduce our friends to each other, they go from being his friend or my friend to being our friends. Sometimes, we'll hold off on introducing people because we don't want to share. Our best friends married one another, and we all hang out together all the time. It’s nice to have that person who is just yours, you know?”
“Ah.” Chrissy nodded as she understood. “Will he be mad that I came here?”
“Nah. Well, maybe. Probably not though. I won't tell him if you don't want me to.” Quinn had no idea if Quill would be upset. She hoped not. Chrissy laughed at her indecision before it died in her throat.
“I don't know that it will matter. I think I hurt him when he dropped off the car.”
“Oh, you did, absolutely.” Quinn nodded. “I'd apologize, thank him for the tires, and maybe start calling him before you call your ex.”
“I wanted to call him first, but I didn't want to bother him unless I absolutely had to.” She looked down at her tea and sighed. “We aren’t actually together, and he’s so busy.”
“I bother him all the time.” Quinn scoffed and waved her hand. “He affectionately calls me Pest.”
“Going back to you're his sister with that one.” Chrissy shook her head. “What do you call him?”
“Porcupine.” Quinn smiled as Chrissy burst into giggles.
“Suits him.”
“He wants you to bother him. Trust me.” Chrissy's phone beeped, and she sighed.
“I have to go pick up Kaia. Thanks for the tea and the talk.”
“Anytime.” Quinn walked her to the door. “Thanks for joining me. It was nice to meet you finally.”
“You too. And thanks for talking me back from the ledge.”
Shutting the door behind Chrissy, Quinn wondered again if she had just overstepped, then shrugged. Quill would get over it. Knowing she was going to be late, she ran to the bedroom to get ready to meet Rilla and Bishop at the bowling alley. She pulled on a pair of medium-wash skinny jeans, a loose white button tank top that she tucked the front in, and a short-sleeve, cream-coloured kimono with hand-painted daisies growing from the bottom hem that hit her mid-thigh. Pulling her hair down from the French braid, she ran her fingers through it, loosening the waves and pulling it into a half ponytail that she held in place with an enamel daisy hair clasp that was held in place with a thick pin. Gold and moonstone flower earrings and a matching necklace went on next, and a quick make-up job and she ran out the door, texting Rilla that she was on her way.