Bringing Delaney Home (Cates Brothers #1) (31 page)

Heat flushed Delaney’s face, but Quinn just smiled and signaled to Renee for two cups of coffee.

“Exactly. And before you know it, wedding bells. You will invite us to the wedding, won’t you?”

“Wedding? We didn’t get around to talking about a wedding last night.” Delaney squirmed in her seat a little, remembering all they had got around to last night. She glanced at Quinn, and when he gave her that dimpled satisfied smile, she had to grab the dessert menu from the table and fan herself.

“Wedding?” Barbara interrupted from her booth on the other side of the diner. She stalked over to stand next to their booth. “Not so fast. I just got off the phone with my best friend Stacie, who said she heard from Wanda over at the high school that her daughter Libby says that Delaney has been cheating on Quinn with another man.”

Delaney wanted to pound her forehead on the table in front of her. She turned and looked into Quinn’s eyes. “So, apparently, normal’s not in my cards. And I may not be vanilla, but Barbie is for sure rocky road.”

“Barbara Jean, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Agatha Simon scolded.

“Why don’t you ask her? Go ahead, Delaney. Tell Quinn and everyone else here that you have
not
been meeting a male, almost daily, over at the high school.” Barbara looked down at Delaney in triumph. “You can’t. Can you?”

“No. I can’t. But I can kick your ass.” Delaney launched herself out of the booth only to feel herself pulled back up against the hard, warm length of Quinn’s body. Feeling his strength and support at her back, the tension left her. Delaney turned in Quinn’s arms until she looked up into his face. “I
have
been meeting a guy almost every day over at the high school. But it isn’t like what Barbara’s making it sound like.”

“I trust you, Delaney.”

“Well, no one else does.” Barbara was stirring up the crowd in the diner. “Everyone in town likes Quinn, Delaney. And we don’t take kindly to seeing you cheat and lie while you bat your big brown eyes at him.”

Delaney heard the chatter moving through the Grapevine. “Is my left eye twitching?” she asked Quinn.

“Not yet. You know you don’t need to prove anything to me, right? But if Barbara is going to throw you a pitch right over the plate, right in your wheelhouse, then I think you’re obligated to hit it out of the park for the team.”

She cocked her head and wondered what language he was speaking. “Quinn, how about you translate that? I don’t speak football. And what team are you talking about?”

“You and me. We’re a team. Team us,” Quinn said. “I’ll teach you to speak football
and
baseball.”

“A team? God, I like the sound of that.” She wrapped her arms around Quinn’s neck and kissed him. “But I was serious about the translation.”

“I said, you do what you’ve got to do. I’ve got your back. Always.” Quinn kissed Delaney and then spun her around to face Barbara.

“Everyone is waiting, Delaney.” And for once, Barbara was right. The diner crowd was buzzing about her possible cheating scandal. Even the Simon sisters were shifting uncomfortably. “It’s time to show your true colors and confess.”

With Quinn solidly in her corner, she knew she didn’t have to do anything. She could ignore Barbara and let the gossip fly behind her back, just like it had when she was growing up. Except she didn’t want that. Not anymore.

How could fitting into Climax have come to mean so much to her? A few weeks ago, she couldn’t escape town fast enough, but now she wanted to fit in like a puzzle piece. Realizing she’d never been alone during the worst moments of her childhood, since people had helped on the down-low, had gone a long way to healing her lonely child’s heart. And, of course, there was Quinn.

“Barbara, you keep letting your hatred of me set you up for these ugly situations. They never end well for you.” Delaney pulled out her phone and called Marcus. This wasn’t all about her, and Marcus had every reason to not want this attention.

When he answered, she said, “Hey. Cat’s out of the bag. The rumor around town is I’m cheating on Quinn with you.” Delaney held the phone away from her ear when Marcus’s reaction was to bust into loud laughter. “You can say no, but I’d like to nip this in the bud. Would it be okay if we met up over at the school with a couple of witnesses. And by a couple witnesses, I mean half the town if these faces are anything to go by.”

Quinn leaned forward wrapping an arm around her, his hand resting on her abdomen. “I can take the gossip, Delaney. Remember, you don’t owe anyone anything.”

Delaney covered his hand with hers to acknowledge his offer. “Are you sure?” she said into the phone, listening to the response while she stared Barbara down. “Oh, yeah. That’s a great idea. Okay, I’ve got to stop by Mama Cates’s house first, but we’ll see you in an hour.”

Delaney hung up on the call and looked at Barbara. “All right, it’s all set. If you didn’t make me so mad, Barbara, I swear I’d be sorry for you.” Delaney raised her voice so the back of the crowd could hear her. “And just to save the Grapevine some trouble, everyone be at the high school in an hour. It’ll cost you ten dollars to get in. Unless you have a life, of course. Then by all means, live it. Please, I beg you, because mine is not all that interesting.”

Quinn grinned. “Well, my life sure is a hell of a lot more interesting since you came back into it.”

An hour later, the Climax High School Booster Team held their most successful fundraiser in years. Delaney and Quinn had stopped off at his parents’ house first. While Quinn filled his family in on the latest showdown between Barbara and Delaney, Delaney went to change into her running clothes and grab the small case with her prosthetic blade.

She and Marcus had talked about surprising both their families by running a 5K in a few months. It wouldn’t be close to a 5K, and it was much earlier than they had planned, but it would still be a surprise.

They walked onto the track, where Coach Wraithe greeted them with a big smile on his face. “Hey, Quinn. Good to see you.”

“Ben,” Quinn said, shaking his hand. “I didn’t realize you and Delaney knew each other.”

“Oh, hey, I’m not
that
guy.” Coach Wraithe kept to the guy code and made it clear he wasn’t trespassing. “Delaney, this fundraiser is great. We should be able to afford the new football uniforms and new lacrosse goals now.”

“I can’t take credit. The fundraiser was Marcus’s idea. Excuse us, Coach.” She grabbed Quinn’s hand and pulled him over to meet Marcus. “Quinn, I’d like you to meet my running buddy, Marcus. Marcus this is my . . . oh, wow. I guess you’re my guy now, aren’t you?”

“You bet your ass I am. Running buddy?” Quinn stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Marcus.”

“Back at ya, Officer Cates. Um, sorry about all the rumors, but well, you grew up here. You know how that works. Delaney, the whole cross-country team wanted to show their support so we’ve turned it into a fun run with everybody.”

“Cool beans. The more the merrier. Marcus, I have to go change into my running foot. Feel free to tell Quinn about how we met. Then we’ll make sure Barbara is front and center for the official introductions.” Delaney gave Quinn a kiss. “I’ll only be a sec. Wait for me.”

“Always.”

Since jumping him in front of high schoolers, his parents, and half the town wasn’t a wise option, she sat on the edge of the football field to strip off her sweats and switch into her running blade. Some of the cross-country team joined her, stretching out in preparation to run.

Finally ready, she grabbed Marcus and headed over to the edge of the track, where Quinn stood with Coach Wraithe. Delaney’s gaze ran over the other nearby faces: the Cates family and Greer, Barbara and her posse, some of the veterans, and much of the Grapevine, who sat clustered in the bleachers but close enough to get every word. And her eye wasn’t even twitching. Huh. She shook her head and grinned at how much things had changed.

“Hey, everyone. So, about that rumor . . . it’s true. I have been meeting a guy here almost daily for a few weeks now. Are you hyperventilating, Barbara? Hoping to hear about the wild affair Coach Wraithe and I are having?” Delaney shook her head at the eagerness on Barbara’s face. She stepped closer to Marcus, linking her elbow through his. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is the guy I’ve been meeting every day after school.

“This is Marcus. Marcus and I met the day I had my meltdown in the gym. Y’all remember that day. I came here feeling sorry for myself and not only would Marcus not let me do that, but he challenged me to run again. To live again. So, that’s it. That’s the big scandal. Oh, and Coach Wraithe offered me a part-time coaching job working with the girls’ cross-country and track teams, which I’m accepting. Now, on to the fun run.”

People cheered. Everyone except Barbara, of course.

Quinn grabbed her hand before she turned away. “A running blade, huh?”

“It was going to be a surprise.”

“Oh, it is. And let me say how completely friggin’ hot you look right now. Sorry, Marcus. You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Quinn kissed her. Hard.

“Dude, I hate to break it to you, but we see her in running shorts almost every day. You think we don’t know? Come on, Delaney, they’re letting us run the first half lap by ourselves.”

Delaney couldn’t catch her breath. Quinn had her heart already racing. That guy was so
it
for her. She was a lot distracted when she took her place in the front row next to Marcus. She felt like she could fly, just like in high school. “Is my life great, or what?”

And then the race gun sounded. Delaney took two steps and fell flat on her face.

“Or what.” Marcus crouched down next to her. Quinn and Coach W magically appeared as the crowd went silent.

“Ow.” Delaney rolled over until she was looking up toward the sky, only all she could see was Quinn’s worried face. She used her hand to gently check her nose and cheek. “Déjà vu, right?”

Marcus and Coach nodded. “Afraid so.”

“This is how you hurt your face last time?” Quinn asked, recognizing the bruising from her face a few weeks ago.

“Yeah. Slow learner.”

“Hardly. You don’t quit—you’re the strongest person I know. God, I love you.”

Quinn grabbed her arms and pulled her up gently until she was standing. He let go once she was steady. Wild applause broke out from the bleachers. “I know. I know you. Go finish the race. I’ll be waiting for you.”

“I know you will. I love that about you.” Delaney placed a whisper-soft kiss on his lips. “A placeholder for later.”

Framing her face with his hands, Quinn kissed her back.

“Quinn? Thanks for bringing me home.” Delaney leaned up to whisper in his ear. “Pinch me.”

Craving more Cates Brothers?
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Available Summer 2016
From Lyrical Shine

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Copyright © 2016 by Lee Kilraine

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First Electronic Edition: February 2016
eISBN-13: 978-1-60183-669-4
eISBN-10: 1-60183-669-4

ISBN: 978-1-6018-3669-4