“
Then what?” she said, hands out in display. “I’m not stupid, I know the first time is gonna suck. It’s not going to be like it is in the movies.”
At this, she watched him soften a little, sucking in a breath before speaking again. “Maybe not, but you deserve it to be with a man
who tries his damnedest to make it as close as possible for you.”
Uh … she was speechless. He was right. But she would never give it up at a party, and especially not to someone who was practically a stranger. What kind of girl did he take her for? Obviously, she shouldn’t joke around like that if he was going to take her so seriously.
“
And you won’t find him here,” Quentin continued. “Come on, I’m taking you home…even if I have to carry you over my shoulder.” He smiled at her, daring her to push him. Instead, she chose not to argue, and followed him to his car parked a little ways down the road.
Despite his going all medieval back at Brian’s and completely humiliating her in front of Darius, she found she rather liked how protective he was of her. The beer was getting all kinds of blame tonight. Tomorrow, she’d swear off beer forever.
“
Can I drive?” she asked, nudging him a little with her shoulder as they walked in the middle of the street.
“
No.”
“
But you still owe me. The agreement was whenever I wanted, and I want to now.” Deciding to try out Lux’s tactic, Grace pushed out her lip.
He shook his head. “You’re drunk, no way!”
“
I’m not drunk, I’ve only had three beers.” Grace held up three fingers in case he didn’t understand the quantity.
“
That’s three too many.” From the passenger side door, he nodded to the car. “Get in, Mario, you can drive tomorrow.”
On the way home, Quentin stopped at Robintino’s for the pizza he owed her. She stayed in the car and leaned her forehead against the passenger window, watching the
R
on the pizza sign flash on and off. She wondered when she’d see Darius again. It wasn’t a matter of
if
anymore. They seemed to be running into each other a lot. A smile spread across her face, knowing tonight might be the first of many. If Quentin didn’t ruin it for me, she thought.
In the short time it took him to grab the pizza and slide back into the car, she was mad he thought so little of her. With the warm pizza in her lap, she watched him from the corner of her eye.
“
What?” he asked.
“
Do you really think I’m like that?”
“
Like what?”
Like what? Oh, that’s right, the
other
Quentin was in the backyard back there.
This
Quentin was sweet, fun, and easy to get along with. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were giving her a headache. “Seriously, Quentin? You practically had me jumping Darius’ bones at the party.”
“
Oh, that’s his name? I’ll try to remember that.” Quentin quickly glanced at her and then back at the road. “Of course I don’t think you’re like that.”
“
Then what was that back there?” she asked. “Whatever that was, wasn’t you. Not the you I know, anyway.” Her mind had a mind of its own and went to his kiss. She hated how that thought accelerated her heart rate, and brushed her pinky across her bottom lip, trying to rub out the memory. It wouldn’t go away, stubbornly remaining rooted right at the very forefront of her brain.
“
I’m … it’s … I—” He stuttered over his words so Grace focused on his nervousness, trying to rid her thoughts of the kiss they’d shared. “I could feel you were feeling the alcohol,” he said slowly, “and I guess—”
Impatient and flustered, she snapped at him. “Spit it out already!”
“
I would have gone crazy if some guy put his hands on you while you weren’t in your right mind to know if you really wanted him to or not.”
Quentin means like him. Clearly, she remembered wanting
him
to touch her, but look where that got her. She almost said as much, but was stopped short by a car she didn’t recognize in the driveway. Adrenaline shot through her body, erasing the remaining effects of the alcohol and whetting her instincts to a razor-sharp clarity. “That better not be Rose,” she spat, shoving the pizza box at Quentin’s chest as she shot out of the car.
Grace crossed in front of the car and raced through the front door. No one was in the foyer or dining room, but she could faintly hear voices coming from the family room.
“
Grace, wait,” Quentin said, trying to grab her arm. She managed to slip through his hold.
“
Mom, whose car is—” She slid to an abrupt halt, her words stuck in her throat. Quentin ran into her back.
Laney stood quiet and wide-eyed, a tall man at her side whose handsome features looked so much like her grandfather. Quentin placed his hands on her elbows and tried ushering her back out with low-toned whispers, but she couldn’t hear any of it. She couldn’t see anything but
him
. The giddiness she felt was quickly eclipsed by fierce anger and betrayal.
Her mom was the first to break the silence. “Grace, let us—”
“
What are you doing here?” Grace faced the man she knew to be her father directly, ignoring her mother’s plea. When he didn’t answer, Grace counted to ten, and then asked him more forcefully. “What the
hell
are you doing here?”
“
Grace—”
Still disregarding Laney, she cut her off. “Get out of my house!”
“
Let us explain.” Laney looked from Richard to Grace.
“
What’s to explain? He
left
us. Or did you forget that minor detail?”
Laney’s face crumbled. “He didn’t leave.”
Her mother had said and done some stupid things, but this was over the top. “Then I’m curious, Mom. What do you call walking out on your wife and daughter and never looking back for fifteen years, other than abandonment?” The man she knew as Richard Morgan stayed silent, seeming to think about what best to say. Or not say.
“
He left to keep you safe,” Laney cried out.
Grace threw her hands in the air and gripped her hips. “Oh, that’s classic, a new low even for you. Blame me for what someone else did. You know what? Don’t leave, I will.” She was so used to feeling this from Laney. It barely registered as something that should hurt her feelings.
“
Grace, wait.”
She grabbed her keys from her purse and flew out the front door.
“
I’ll drive,” came from behind her, Quentin’s voice urgent and insistent.
Twirling, she pointed a finger at him. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“
Knew what?” he said, cowering away from the dangers of her finger.
“
Knew what?” she mimicked sarcastically. “You knew she was seeing him, didn’t you?”
Defeated and looking more than a little guilty, he ran a hand through the disarray of his black hair, pushing it from his eyes. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“
How about the truth for once, Quentin?” The key in her hand bit into the flesh of her palm as she clenched it into a fist at her side.
“
It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
“
No?” she asked, stabbing him with her icy stare. “I know your job is to protect me and all, but I thought you were also my friend. A friend would have told me.” Grace continued toward her car. When she reached for the door handle, she dipped her chin and kept her back to him. “Don’t come with me. Don’t follow me. Stay here with them … where your true loyalties lie.”
“
Grace.”
The pain in his voice as he said her name cut a fresh wound across her heart. It begged her to see reason, to know he cared—to stay. She couldn’t. She slid into her car and drove away, and watched as Quentin got smaller in her rearview mirror before turning onto Belmont.
Grace turned off Belmont and onto Montgomery, heading back to Brian’s. Hopefully her friends were still at the party—the only people in the world who didn’t lie to her. She parked a little ways from the party. Grabbing the handle, she paused for a second to pull herself together, but instead slumped over the steering column, forehead pressed against the wheel.
The betrayal she felt cut mercilessly like a dull, rusty knife, mutilating all she knew as it dragged across her heart. Her patchwork quilt of a heart was definitely beginning to fray. They were cold, all three of them. She was just a pawn in their sick game.
Check. Mate.
When the first tear fell, she was mad at herself for allowing it to fall at all. After the second and third, Grace silently promised herself they were for her and her alone.
A soft rap against the driver’s window had her gasping for breath as she wiped embarrassingly at her eyes. “Who’s there?” she called out, fogging the window a little from her breath.
“
It’s Darius, Grace. What’s wrong?”
Once her tears were dried, she saw that it was him. If the window hadn’t been up, he would have had an up close and personal look at the waterworks. She took another swipe at her eyes, and wished she could take a quick peek in a mirror, but went ahead and rolled down the window. “Hi,” she said in a shaky voice. “What are you doing?”
“
I was about to ask you the same thing.”
What was she doing? Coming for Emily. But she was at the party with Tommy, and Grace didn’t want to ruin her night too. “I was going to go back inside, but I guess I changed my mind.”
Darius squatted to the ground, elbows resting on the open window’s ledge, wearing his boyish smile. “I was getting ready to take off. It got kind of boring without you.”
“
Well, it’s a good thing you’re leaving, because your night would have gone from boring to unbearable.”
“
I doubt that.” He paused and Grace focused on her hands, but she could feel his eyes on her face as he spoke again. “You want to talk about it?”
“
Not really.”
“
Rough night?” he pressed.
“
Yeah,” she snickered. “Something like that.”
“
Hang on,” Darius said, smacking the top of the door as he got up. “I’ll be right back. Stay here!” he yelled as he jogged into the darkness toward Brian’s.
As soon as he was far enough away, Grace flipped the roof dome light on and checked her makeup in the mirror. Her mascara wasn’t too smeared. In the distance, she could make out the outline of someone running toward her, something in hand. Darius didn’t return to her open window, choosing instead to hop into the passenger seat. One arm was wrapped around a blanket, the other hand looped in the handle of a plastic bag. She eyed the bag curiously, quietly questioning him with her eyes.
Darius held it up. “Beer.”
Duh, she should have figured. “And?” she asked.
“
And, we’re going to take these beers and go somewhere.”
“
Where?” Her foot tapped against the gas pedal.
“
You’ll see.” The side of his mouth hooked up. “It’s about ten miles down the road.”
“
What about your car?”
“
It’s a bike and I told Ari to ride it. Lux can drive his truck.”
Well, okay then. She pulled out and drove past Brian’s. The house looked the same as it had earlier—open, music loud, tons of cars, and people all around. How Darius thought all that was boring, she couldn’t figure. Either way, she was glad he was there, in her car. Oh my gosh, he’s in my car, she shrieked inside. Dangerously, she tried to peek at him out of the corner of her eye, while responsibly watching the road ahead.
His slight chuckle startled her. “Keep your eyes on the road.”