Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
MILES
She’s gone.
She’s really gone.
It’s such a simple thought, and yet my mind keeps repeating it over and over as if I still don’t quite believe it.
But it’s true.
Quinn Banks is gone, and I haven’t moved from this spot since she walked out the door more than an hour ago.
I’ll see her at Christmas, yeah, but what will that be like? Will she seek me out? Will our connection ignite where we left off? Will we be faced with another goodbye like the one we just had?
Fuck.
My heart practically skips at that thought.
I’m not sure I’d be strong enough to go through that again. Hugging her for the last time for who knows how long. Smelling her. Hearing her choked, sad voice. Seeing her cry.
Hell, watching her walk away from me.
Those are all things I will be just fine if I never experience again .
Shadow walks into the living room, his head hanging low as he approaches me.
I lean forward from where I’m sitting and put him on my lap.
“Letting her go was the right thing to do, yeah?”
Shadow doesn’t make a peep.
“I mean, she doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long. It makes sense.”
Still nothing.
“We will just be one of those right person at the wrong time kind of couples, right?”
Shadow picks up his head.
“Do you think we will get a right time?”
The pup licks my face and then curls into a ball on my lap.
I let out a breath and kiss his little furry head.
I just need to get back to work and move on with life. The sooner I do that, the better.
I stand up, hooking Shadow under my arm because he’s not allowed to leave me alone right now, and head to the shop.
Once I get there, it’s like I don’t know what I’m doing. Henry nods his head in greeting, but then gets back to work.
I do my best to do that, too, but it’s like everything is happening in slow motion. Is that an effect of a heart breaking? Because as cliché as it sounds, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening to me right now.
I’m just going through the motions because my brain doesn't want to accept that my summer with Quinn is over.
Oh, fuck.
It’s over.
I slowly sit on the red rolling chair Quinn took over every afternoon during the last few weeks. I close my eyes to focus, and the reality of my life hits me hard in a flash.
I don’t want to go back to the way life was.
I don’t want to get back into a routine without her .
I don’t want to wake up and not make her breakfast. Or not see her sitting in the recliner, sipping her coffee in the morning while she reads. Or not see her smile the moment she comes home to find me waiting for her.
I want all of that.
I want her there when I come home.
I want to be there for her when she comes home.
I want to …
My eyes spring open and I stand.
Her flight doesn’t leave for a couple of hours.
“Henry, lock up and call it a day,” I say as I head for the shop door.
“Lock up everything?”
“Yes, I’ll pay you for the day and for however long I’m gone.”
“All right. Is everything okay?”
“Everything is great,” I tell him then knock on the doorframe before I rush through it.
I can’t let her go.
She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I cannot lose her.
I won’t.
I meant it when I said loving her was easy.
I’ll fight every single day if I have to make sure that’s the way we stay.
Whether it’s traveling with her or her here with me.
I don’t care how we make it work as long as we do.
“Why the hurry?” my dad yells from the back patio of the apartment as I jog across the grass to my house, Shadow right behind me.
I turn, running backward, and yell, “I have a flight to catch.”
I barely catch his smile as I resume my route.
I’ve got a one-track mind right now .
I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Quinn’s number.
If there is a chance I can still catch her, I’m taking it.
It goes straight to voicemail.
Shit.
I can still make it. I’ll get there on time.
I try her again, just to be sure there wasn’t anything weird, but no, right to voicemail.
I skip the steps two by two, sprint to my room, and grab my suitcase. I toss it on the bed and Shadow tries to jump up next to it.
“Looks like you’re getting your first plane ride, bud.”
Shit, where can I get a travel carrier right now?
“Never mind, you’re staying with Luca.”
I shoot my brother a quick text and stuff clothes in my bag, jogging down the steps in record time. As soon as I swing the front door open, I jerk back and freeze.
Quinn is standing at the bottom step with her suitcases next to her.
Her eyes drop to the suitcase next to my feet.
Shadow runs past me, his front legs moving as one as he bounds down the steps to her, his tongue flopping around as he bounces.
She picks him up and then nods to my bag.
“Are you going somewhere?”
Her smile hits me right in the chest.
That’s my smile.
I take one step down and lean on the railing with my arms crossed.
“Maybe.”
She nods.
“Care to tell me where?”
“That depends.” I move down another step .
Shadow is licking her face like a crazed dog now, and I get it, buddy, I really do.
“On what?” Quinn asks.
“On if I was going to make it to the airport on time.”
“Hmm.” She takes a step toward me. “Where are you going in a hurry?”
She’s even closer now. “The best thing that has ever happened to me was about to get on a plane, and I was going to try like hell to be in the seat next to her.”
Her eyes glaze over, and I take the last step toward her. She moves like a magnet toward me.
“Miles, I?—”
I wrap an arm around her lower back and pull her against me. My hands thread through her hair as I lock her lips to mine.
This, right here, this connection, this passion—I can’t let it go. Ever.
I kiss her with all that I have. Her fist finds my shirt and clenches to hold on, and I swear the porch spins.
This is what it’s supposed to be like forever.
Me and her.
But of course, she has something to say.
She pushes me back, her hand cupping my cheek.
“You came back,” I state the obvious.
“I did, and I have no idea how we are going to make this work. I just know that I want to try.”
"I don’t want this to end either, Quinn. If it means waiting for you while you travel, I’ll do it. If it means I see you only twice a year, I’ll do it. I’ll wait for you. I’ll never find this with someone else, and I don’t want to. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you, and if it means I close the shop from time to time, then that’s what has to happen. I’ll?—”
“My turn,” she cuts me off. “The only adventure I want from here on out is with you. Every day. Every minute, and mostly here in Lovers. I want it all. If you have to be somewhere, I’m there. If I need to be somewhere, you’re there. We stay together. Forever.”
I grin. Between the two of our confessions, we’re going to make this work.
That doesn’t mean I can’t still tease a little.
“Forever? That sounds a bit excessive, don’t you think?” I wink, thinking of the answer she gave to me once after I gave her a similar speech.
She punches my shoulder, but she laughs.
“I love you, too, Miles Asher.”
Shadow barks just then, so I reach out to take him from Quinn’s arms. He licks my face and then hers.
Looks like everyone is getting what they want today.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay staying in Lovers?”
She nods.
“It means you’ll be giving things up,” I point out. I need to make sure she’s fully on the same page as me.
“I know. By the looks of it, it seems you were going to do the same.”
“For you, I would. I’m an idiot for not figuring this out sooner.”
“You're not an idiot. I should have figured it out, too. But maybe you can promise me that we can take at least one trip a year.”
“Deal, and it’s going to be more than one because I’d never do that to you. But I’m also not sure where we can go that you haven’t already been.”
“That’s the thing, Miles. I haven’t seen them with you.”
I wrap my arms around her, pulling her tight, only to spot my dad, Tobias, Natalie, and their twins on the apartment patio. Natalie is crying, and my dad is thrusting a fist into the air.
“I was so nervous coming back just now,” Quinn admits .
“Why?”
“Because this all happened so fast, and asking someone to make this kind of change is huge, and I?—”
Again, I silence her with a kiss.
“I don’t want you to ever be nervous to come to me. If we want this to work, we can’t hold back.”
“Deal,” she says and then she winks at me as she heads into the house with Shadow.
I grab our bags and follow behind her.
It’s just like she said. Wherever she goes, I go.
Forever.
Sounds like a damn good plan to me.