Page 49 of Inked Heart
I watched.
Because she had a boyfriend and no matter how much I disliked Emette Black, I wasn’t going to step into the middle of someone else’s relationship.
But tonight?Tonight my patience has officially run out.
Quinn stands beside me in Mason’s gravel driveway, arms wrapped tightly around herself like she’s trying to keep the pieces of her heart from falling apart.The music from the party thumps faintly behind us, people laugh, and in the distance someone shouts a loud greeting.
Life goes on inside that house like nothing happened.Meanwhile the woman beside me just watched her boyfriend kiss someone else.
My jaw tightens.“How long?”I ask quietly.
She sniffs and wipes at her cheeks.“I don’t know.”
“That didn’t look like the first time?”
Her shoulders sag slightly.“I guess not.”
Anger curls in my chest like a living thing.Not at her, never at her.At him.At the guy inside that house who somehow managed to land a woman like Quinn and still treat her like she was disposable.
“That’s his loss,” I say.
She laughs weakly.“Doesn’t feel like it.”
“It will.”I say softly.
“Maybe.”She stares down the dark road for a moment.“I should go.”
The words hit me harder than expected.“Where?”
“Home.”
“Alone?”
“I drove here.”The words sound automatic.
“That’s not what I meant.”
She glances at me.“I’ll be okay.”
I don’t believe that for a second.“You don’t have to deal with this by yourself.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re standing in a driveway crying while your boyfriend makes out with someone else inside.”
“Ex-boyfriend.”The correction surprises both of us.
Quinn blinks then exhales slowly.
“Yeah,” she says quietly.“Ex.”
The word settles into the air between us and a strange mix of sadness and relief washes through my chest.Because hearing that should make me happy but right now she’s hurting too much for that to matter.
The front door of the house slams open behind us.Footsteps crunch across the gravel and a voice I recognize immediately calls out.
“Well, well.”
My spine stiffens because of course it’s Emette Black.
