Twenty-Six
Quinn
Are you ignoring me?
Standing in line at the student union coffee shop, Charlie scowls at her phone.
Charlie
I’ve been busy
Quinn
Busy ignoring me
She puffs out a laugh. Because yes, she is ignoring him. Rather, she’s deliberately avoiding him. But she won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s correct.
She moves forward in line, and her phone buzzes again.
Quinn
Can you just give me five minutes? If you don’t want to tutor me anymore, that’s fine. But I really need to talk to you
She doesn’t respond. Perhaps she’s a coward, but regardless of what he wants to say to her, she can’t face him. Because if she does, she’ll crack and confess everything his father said two days ago.
It’s all she can do not to allow it to consume her thoughts.
It would be so easy to agree, but his father’s impression of her relationship with Wes is all wrong.
She can’t convince him to do anything. She doesn’t want to convince him to do something he so vehemently does not want to do.
Especially not for her own benefit. She used him for her pleasure even after discovering very early on that her feelings for him had not dulled in the slightest with time.
She can’t use him for this, too. She won’t.
At least the contraception company agreed to her and Carolyn’s proposal, providing her with a modicum of satisfaction on a day that felt overshadowed by Gabriel’s offer.
She strolls out of the café, coffee in hand, and nearly smacks into Wes’s chest.
“Rogers.” He grips her upper arms, steadying her, his face full of relief. “Please, I really need—”
“I’m late for class,” she blurts, pulling out of his grip and darting across the lobby to the exit. She doesn’t look back.
A minute later, her phone buzzes.
Quinn
Very mature
Charlie
Are you stalking me?
Quinn
If that’s what it takes
She responds with a thumbs-down, perfectly aware that she’s acting like a child.
Later that afternoon, a shadow falls over her table in the library. When she glances up, she curses herself and her predictability.
Because he found her. Of course he did. Just like he did on a similar afternoon months earlier when all this began.
“God, what, Quinn?” she snaps.
He shoots her an aggrieved look. Dropping his bag to the floor, he slides into the chair across from her. She takes in the effect his light-blue Henley has on his arms before resuming her glare.
“This is the only place I know where you’ll let me talk to you,” he says.
Her heart patters erratically. “I can always leave.”
“And I can always follow you.”
“Stalking behavior is typically frowned upon.”
His lips twitch before he sighs, raking a hand through his hair. “Let me say what I need to say, and then I’ll leave. I promise.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Fine.”
He exhales, dragging a hand through his hair, the fingers of his other hand drumming restlessly on the table, a nervous gesture that makes a knot form in Charlie’s gut.
Just as he opens his mouth, however, the familiar sound of aggressive wind chimes trills through the quiet air.
He jumps, lunging under the table for his bag.
“Shit.” He stabs the decline button on his phone, but not before she catches the caller’s name on the screen. “Sorry.”
“Call him back,” she blurts.
Wes frowns, turning his phone so the screen faces down. “No, he can wait—”
“Don’t ignore him.” She glances up and sees his confusion. “He’s your dad.”
“What are you—”
“Call him back and see what he wants,” she whispers, unable to keep her voice from trembling. Her hands shake, and she clamps them together in her lap. “You can’t ignore him.”
He’s peering at her like he’s never seen her before in his life. She looks away, unable to meet his eye.
“Rogers.” His voice is low, and she feels his gaze like a flame. “What’s wrong?”
She shakes her head, a pressure building behind her eyes. This is why she didn’t want to see him. She thought she had everything under control. She knew what she was doing. She wasn’t going to involve him.
“Charlie.”
Her gaze locks on his. A calculating look not dissimilar to his father’s gleams in his eye, but this one doesn’t make her afraid.
“Please don’t push me away again,” he says in a measured tone. “Did my dad do something to you?”
Pressing her lips together, she stares at a spot over his shoulder, resignation and relief filling her. She tried pushing him away, but he has always seen her. He understands her, and it was foolish of her to think she could hide this from him.
“He didn’t—” Her voice cracks, and she clears her throat. “Not to me. But he offered me something.”
Wes’s eyes flash. “In exchange for what?” At Charlie’s look of surprise, he scoffs. “I know him. Nothing comes without a price.”
Charlie holds his gaze. “He said he would fund the clinic so we don’t have to worry about raising enough money at the expo.
And in exchange…” She exhales, her limbs no longer trembling.
“He wants me to convince you to focus on getting into law school so you can one day take your place as the head of his firm, like he’s always planned. ”
His eyes widen, and she quickly adds, “He said if I don’t help, he’ll give an anonymous donation to Heartbeat Care to fund the crisis pregnancy center.
I don’t know why he came to me, Quinn. I told him I don’t control what you do, but I promise you, even if I could, I wouldn’t.
” The moment the words are out of her mouth, she knows they’re true.
She won’t accept his deal, anonymous donations be damned.
“I would never try to convince you to choose a life you don’t want. ”
Wes wraps his hands loosely around his phone, his eyes burning with anger and a fierce determination she’s not sure she’s ever witnessed in him. She’s impressed by his restraint, especially when he shakes his head and lets out a harsh, derisive laugh.
“That fucker.”
Setting his phone on the table, he pulls up the call screen and presses a name.
Charlie gapes. “What are you doing?”
Instead of answering, he simply winks. When his father answers on the second ring, he hits the speaker button.
His tone is sharp. “Wesley.”
“Hi, Dad.” Wes leans close to the mic. “Just wanted to call you back and let you know I’m sitting here with a dear friend of mine. Charlie Rogers? You remember her?”
Charlie stares, horrified, realizing the deadly calm on Wes’s face is rage.
“She’s just informed me of something very interesting you told her, and I am done. I’m done with your games. You don’t get to manipulate me and control me anymore. Cut me off financially if you want, I don’t give a fuck. But you can take your precious legacy and shove it up your ass.”
Charlie isn’t breathing, certain she’s hallucinating the sound of Wes telling off his dad and blowing up his life.
For her.
“Wesley James,” his father snarls, “you listen to me—”
“No,” Wes snaps. “You listen, asshole. Do not contact Charlie or Dr. Angelo or anyone associated with The Wild Rue ever again. If you do, or if I hear one word about an anonymous donation being made to Heartbeat Care to build their ridiculous center, I have no problem going to the press and leaking certain infidelities I’m certain you don’t want going public before Mom announces her campaign. ”
A lightning bolt of shock zips through Charlie. She’s unable to tear her gaze away from him—this confident, authoritative man with such blatant contempt for his father.
Silence comes from the other end of the phone. Charlie’s blood pulses in her ears.
“Is that clear?” Wes snaps.
“Yes,” comes the curt voice of Gabriel Quinn.
“Excellent. Fuck you.”
He hangs up. And then he starts laughing.
“Oh my god,” he gasps, covering his face with one hand. “That felt fucking incredible.”
When he looks at her, his expression is transcendent, the smile she loves the most stretching across his handsome face. He looks clear-eyed, lighter than he has in months.
But Charlie shakes her head, trying to overcome her shock. “You can’t do that.”
He shoots her a bemused look. “I just did.”
“Quinn,” she moans. “Why?”
He doesn’t answer. Rising from his chair, he tosses his phone in his bag before slinging it over his shoulder. Something in his expression shifts, something she can’t interpret, but he suddenly looks softer. Instead of answering, he holds out a hand.
“Can I walk you home?”