Chapter 10
Quinn walked into Sweet Escapes the next morning to see if they had any more custard Danishes for Alex or perhaps something else. She had a sweet tooth and he liked being able to do this for her from time to time. Plus he figured she’d probably worked up a bit of an appetite from the night before
His cousin Max was serving behind the counter when he approached and Quinn placed his order for a box of strawberry and white chocolate muffins as they didn’t have any of the Danishes.
The place was unusually quiet. A lot of people would grab stuff on their way to school or work so he was surprised to see he was the only customer.
Although it had snowed heavily overnight so perhaps the weather was putting some people off.
‘Cleo found a bauble this morning,’ Max said, as he boxed up Quinn’s order.
‘She did?’ Quinn said.
‘Yeah, it had her famous Christmas tree cupcake on it. She’s so excited. And it just makes me want to find the guy who’s doing this and give him a big hug.’
‘I’m sure St Nick would really appreciate that,’ he said, dryly.
Max grinned. ‘By the way, is Alex OK after the other night?’ he asked.
Quinn frowned in confusion. How could Max possibly know what had happened between them?
‘After that idiot was shouting at her because of her allergy,’ Max said, clearly wondering why he was having to explain it when Quinn had been the one to come and pick her up.
‘Oh yeah, she’s fine,’ Quinn said.
‘Dating is a minefield, there don’t seem to be any normal men out there, apart from me and you. Which begs the question, why are you letting her go out with these weirdos?’
‘Let her? Since when am I in charge of who she dates? She has to decide that for herself.’
‘I meant, you’ve been in love with her for what, three, four years now. You should be the one to date her not these losers.’
Quinn sighed. He’d never told anyone about his feelings for Alex, least of all his family in case they thought he was being disloyal to his brother. But he guessed he must have been kind of obvious about it.
‘That has to be her choice too,’ he said. ‘And right now, after everything she went through with Liam, she’s not ready for another relationship.’
Max frowned. ‘Was he up to his old ways with her too? I kind of thought he had sorted his life out when I heard at the funeral that he’d got married.’
‘I thought that too and for a while that was true, they were happy. But then he fell off the wagon and she bore the brunt of it for eighteen months before he died.’
‘Oh crap, I didn’t know,’ Max said, his eyes wide. ‘I mean, I suspected something like that had happened with the way he died but I didn’t realise she’d lived with that for a while.’
‘I know, me neither. She never left him because she wanted to help him and now she wears the scars like barbed wire round her heart.’
Max shook his head. ‘Then she definitely doesn’t need to be dating idiots.’
‘Fortunately, I don’t think she’ll be dating anyone for a while.’
Cleo walked up then, placing a tray of freshly made mince pies into the display cabinet. ‘Are you talking about Alex? Max told me what happened the other night at Alberto’s, poor love. But she can’t give up on love because of two bad dates.’
‘I think it’s a bit more than that,’ Quinn said, wishing he hadn’t been drawn on talking about Alex’s private business.
‘She could double date with me,’ Cleo said. ‘Then we can help each other weed out the bad eggs.’
‘You’re dating?’ Max said. ‘You said you never wanted to date another man ever again.’
‘Well that was because my last boyfriend was a cheating scumbag. But while I don’t really want to go down the relationship route right now, I could date to support Alex and to give me a chance to see the calibre of men who are out there.’
‘Well, I could be your plus one,’ Max said. ‘And we can both go along and help Alex. That way, I can eject any weirdos and you don’t have to date any of them yourself.’
Quinn suppressed a smirk. If it was obvious that he’d been transparent about his feelings towards Alex, then it was equally obvious that Max had been in love with Cleo for a while. Well, obvious to everyone except Cleo.
‘I guess that could work,’ Cleo shrugged.
Although that didn’t work for Quinn. He knew that what he had with Alex was a very casual arrangement and she’d been very clear there were no strings, but the thought of her lying in his bed after they’d made love and then getting up to date someone else made him feel sick.
Fortunately, she had sort of promised him their no-strings-attached arrangement was exclusive, which he knew was a contradiction in terms.
But that wasn’t something he could discuss with Max and Cleo.
‘I don’t think we should push Alex into dating,’ Quinn tried. ‘She has to be ready for that.’
‘I think she needs some help to get back on the horse,’ Cleo insisted.
Quinn sighed, knowing he was fighting a losing battle.
‘You know, I’m something of a matchmaker,’ Cleo went on. ‘I have a knack for finding the right people for each other. Two couples I’ve set up on blind dates are now happily married. I bet I could find the perfect person for her. Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.’
Two happily married couples didn’t seem like the extensive track record Cleo was making it out to be, so Quinn wasn’t exactly worried about some big romantic success story, but it was a little frustrating that he couldn’t just tell them that he and Alex were sort of seeing each other – although technically he couldn’t even call it that.
He paid for his order and then walked the short distance to Alex’s house. There was quite a thick layer of snow on the ground this morning and although it wasn’t coming down heavily like it had been the night before, it was still falling gently, adding to the snow that had already fallen.
He could see her in the kitchen as he approached. He knocked softly on the door and let himself in. Her smile at seeing him lit up her whole face and that made him feel warm inside.
He was desperate to kiss her again but he wasn’t sure if that was allowed.
‘Morning,’ he said, moving closer.
‘Hi.’ Her hands moved to reach for him but then fell back by her sides as if she didn’t know the rules either, even though she was the one making them.
‘Where’s Zara?’ Quinn asked.
‘In the shower.’
‘And Immy?’
‘Walking Jacob.’
That was all he needed to know. He stepped up, cupped her face and kissed her and felt her smile against his lips as she slid her hands round his neck.
He was never ever going to get enough of this woman.
He just wished he could shout about their relationship from the rooftops.
And that he could call it a relationship in the first place.
He pulled back to look at her, leaning his forehead against hers, and she smiled up at him.
‘Is this allowed in our arrangement?’ he asked.
‘It’s very much allowed.’
‘Good, I don’t think I could go all day and not kiss you.’ He gestured to the box he’d left on the table. ‘I brought you these. Before you get excited, no apple Danishes today, so these are the strawberry and white chocolate muffins that Zara loves.’
‘Oh, she will love you for that and eating one won’t exactly be a hardship for me either.’
‘Max and Cleo were worried about you after the other night. Max is worried about you dating idiots and Cleo wants to set you up on a blind date. I, umm… told them you weren’t ready to date yet but Cleo was most insistent.’
‘Oh, I’ll make up some excuse, you don’t need to worry.’
Quinn wanted to say that it would be far easier if they were just honest with people that they were seeing each other but it was so new and fragile, he didn’t want to put any pressure on her.
Just then there was a thunder of feet as Zara came running down the stairs. He took a few steps away from Alex.
‘We have a snow day,’ Zara almost shouted, bursting into the kitchen. ‘The school is closed.’
‘You do?’ Alex said, checking her phone. ‘Oh wow, you’re right.’
‘I heard it on the radio. I’ve never had a snow day before,’ Zara said, bubbling with excitement. ‘What do we do?’
Quinn smiled. God he loved this kid. ‘What do we do? We make snowmen, we have snowball fights, we go sledging and we drink lots of hot chocolate covered in whipped cream and sprinkles.’
Zara’s eyes lit up. ‘I don’t have to do schoolwork?’
He was about to say no but she wasn’t his to make those kind of decisions for. Alex might want her to practise her times tables or write a story about a snow witch or something.
‘Nope, that’s the beauty of a snow day, school’s closed so no schoolwork,’ Alex said. ‘This kind of snow happens so rarely that we have to make the most of it. I’ll have to go to work for a few hours around lunchtime, but we can have fun this morning and this afternoon.’
Quinn knew that this time of year was their busiest period and Alex wouldn’t want to miss out on crucial sales, but lunchtime was the time of day when most people would come so they had plenty of time to have some fun this morning before the lunchtime rush.
‘Yes!’ Zara did a little victory dance.
‘Go and get changed into something warm and then we’ll head out,’ Alex said.
Zara bombed out of the room and thundered back upstairs.
To Quinn’s surprise Alex wrapped her arms round his neck and she kissed him briefly.
‘You don’t have to give up your morning at work for us,’ she said. ‘I know how popular your little monsters are at this time of year, I don’t want you to miss out on any sales.’
‘Are you kidding? I’m not going to miss out on Zara’s first snow day. How often do we get snow like this that we can actually play in? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
She smiled. ‘Thank you. She will love that she gets to share this with you.’
Just then he saw movement out the window and he looked up to see Immy trudging through the snow with a very wet and grumpy-looking Jacob, the snow sticking to his fur in little balls.