Loving Quinn Novel by North Rose

(Annora)

When Max told me about the DNA results, my heart broke for him. Since the day Leita told him she was pregnant, my oldest brother has been so happy. He has worked hard for everything he has. The future looked so bright for him and his college sweetheart. Now, everything he has been building is crashing down around him.

All because his wife cheated on him.

Not only did Leita cheat on him, but she also ruined a lifelong friendship between Max and Jake. Well, Jake helped in that. He could have said no. He should have said no and then told Max she came on to him.

Sadly, he didn’t.

I was so angry with Leita when she called me sobbing. Her sad story fell on deaf ears. She claimed the friendship with her co-worker started off innocent. Then all the lonely night. while Max was on one construction site or another took their toll on her.

The lonely wife troupe is an old one and one I am not falling for. If Leita was so lonely, she should have spoken to Max about long before she spread her legs for her co-worker. Being lonely is not an excuse to cheat on your husband.

When she found out she was pregnant, it was a month after she and Max had a romantic weekend away. The guilt of what she was doing behind his back was killing her, but she honestly hoped that the baby would be his and not the other guys.

I laughed at her when she told me that the guilt was hard on her. Not hard enough to make her stop, however. Not only did she not stop, but she also changed partners. That part of the entire situation made me see red as she was sobbing in my ear over the phone.

My brother deserves better.

“It looks like Max has company,” Quinn says as we pull into the driveway.

I look up from my hands to see what he is talking about. Sure enough, there are two more cars in the driveway parked next to Max’s. I know those cars. One belongs to my brother Eric while the other one belongs to my brother Daniel. Which means if Daniel is here, so is his twin, Kristopher.

“All my brothers are here now.”

1 glance over at Quinn as he puts the car into park. There is a smile on his face. I know why. He and Daniel connected over old cars that summer. I can see the appreciation on his face as he looks at my brother’s prized possession.

“Come on, you and Daniel can talk about cars all night, but we have to go inside for you to do it.”

Quinn laughs, then opens his door to get out. We walk to the front door hand in hand. I use my key to unlock the door, then we head straight towards the kitchen, where I can hear my brother Kris’s laughter.

The five of us are rarely in the same place at the same time anymore. Christmas is about the only holiday we are all together. Except for the last two years. Kris and Daniel were too busy one year, then just Daniel the next.

Seeing all four of my brothers standing around the kitchen island with beers in their hands and smiles on their faces makes me happy. Even if the reason they are all here isn’t an auspicious occasion. The fact that they are here now is what matters to me.

Eric spots me first. The huge grin on his face is infectious. I smile at him as I let go of Quinn’s hand to rush across the kitchen to my brother’s waiting arms. I hear Daniel call out my name, then Eric spins me like the professional dancer he is into Daniel’s waiting arms.

I am quickly sandwiched between him and Kris as they hug me tight. This is something they have always done to me. Rarely have I ever been able to hug one of them without the other

coming to join in.

“I missed you two,” I whisper to them.

“We missed you too, Sprite.”

They both rub the top of my head, then let me go. Max is the only one who doesn’t come to hug me, but that doesn’t bother me. We have seen and spoken to each other more since he has been in California.

“How long are the three of you staying?”

“Until Monday,” Kris and Daniel say in unison.

“I am staying until mom and dad get back and then I am heading back to France,” Eric tells me.

I nod, then move around the counter to hug Max. As I do, I hear Daniel call out to Quinn. I can’t help but smile at the way my brothers just fold him into their conversations like no time has passed between that long ago summer and tonight.

With them distracted with Quinn, I take this time to pull Max out of the room to talk to him about Leita. I drag him out onto the back patio, but leave the doors open so we can both still hear our brothers with Quinn.

The minute I have Max alone, the smile on his face slips and I can see the sadness in his eyes. I pull him into a hug just as the dam breaks on his emotions. This is what he won’t show the others.

To Max, he is the oldest, therefore he feels like he must be the strongest of us all. Even the strongest men are susceptible to heartbreak. No one is immune to it. We all suffer from a broken heart at least once in our lives.

1 just hate seeing Max going through what Leita did to him.

“How could she do this to me? To us? Why?”

“She called me today.”

His head shoots up off my shoulder as I say this. Anger replaces the sadness momentarily. I know that there will be ups and downs with his emotions. Anger, hatred, and even violent rage. Then there will be the sadness, the loneliness, and the despair of everything he lost.

I know those emotions. I went through some of them with Quinn and some of them with Kyle. Most of the darker emotions were with Kyle and the way he treated me in the end. The sadness was during the first few years without Quinn.

When all I had to remind me of him was Grace.

“What did she want?”

Max walks away from me, then sits on a lounger. His hands are balled into fists as he struggles to get a grip on his anger. I debate on how much of our conversation to share with him. No matter what I say, it will hurt him and make him hate her more.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

In then end, I tell him everything Leita said to me earlier.

“She actually blamed her cheating on me with two different men on my work schedule?” His voice in laced with pure disbelief as he asks this,

Max shoots up off the lounger, rakes his fingers through his already messy hate then stalks to the edge of the patio. I can see his body shake as he stands there. Rage. I id be feeling rage if I were in his situation.

I open my mouth to say something soothing to him but close his when he spins around to face me. The look in his eyes is something I have never seen on my brother’s face before. My mild natured brother is standing there with a look that I can only describe as… murderous.

“Every time she called me while I was on a site, I answered the phone. I would make time to talk to her if she had a bad day. I was always available to her if she needed me. Why did she do this to us? Why?”

He screams in rage as he walks off the patio, then into the yard. A noise from inside makes me glance towards the open glass doors. Eric is standing in the doorway. The anger in his eyes makes me glad he is here.

Without a word, he walks to join Max in the yard. I take that as my cue to leave them to talk. Standing from my longer, I quietly walk back inside. I follow the sounds of Quinn and Daniel’s voices into the living room.

I am not surprised at what I find when I walk into the room. Daniel and Quinn are sitting on the sofa, staring at Daniel’s laptop on the coffee table. Kris is sitting on the wingback chair that is angled towards the sofa. He is shaking his head as he listens to them talking about

cars.

Not just any cars, though. Old cars. Anything newer than the mid-seventies doesn’t interest them. At least not from a collector’s viewpoint. Quinn has new cars. Expensive sports cars. As well as the new four-wheel-drive SUV he bought after I told him about Grace.

He said it made more sense to have a bigger, more practical vehicle to drive our daughter around in. I told him an SUV was a bit much and that a midsize sedan would be fine. The look of horror on his face was laughable.

“What are two looking at?” I ask.

Daniel is showing Quinn his car collection. I feel like we are back at Grampie’s that summer. Me just listening to them just go on and on about cars until you came downstairs, causing Quinn to lose all train of thought.” Kris says..

I am an adult, but hearing my brother say that makes my cheeks flush crimson. Quinn chuckles at Kris’s remark, which doesn’t help at all. I forgot how much my brothers teased me that summer after Quinn dropped me off each night.

“Be nice or I won’t share the beer we forgot in the car,” I tell Kris.

Like I expected, he is up out of his seat with his hand held out for car keys. I laugh out loud as Quinn digs in his pocket, then tosses them to him. Kris is out the door in a flash. I shake my head, then leave the room to make sure Max has space in the fridge for the beer.

Eric comes back into the house as I walk into the kitchen. Max is nowhere in sight. I don’t like the idea of leaving him out there on his own, but giving him some space is probably a good idea.

A few minutes later, Kris comes into the kitchen with the two cases of beer that Quinn bought at the store on our way here. I open the fridge for him, then leave him and Eric debating about beer brands while I go back to the living room.

1 pass Daniel in the hallway as I walk towards the living room.

“Beer?”

“In the fridge now.”

He gives me a nod, then walks away. Quinn is still sitting on the sofa looking at Daniel’s laptop when I enter the living room. I can’t help but smile at the silly look on his face. He looks like a kid in a candy store. Wild-eyed excitement.

“You planning to buy something?”

Quinn looks up at me, then closes the laptop quickly. Too quickly for my liking. I arch my eyebrows at him as I sit beside him. Somehow, I don’t lik

how he is looking at me. Like I caught him doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

“What?” He asks.

“You closed that pretty quick and have that same look on your face that Grace gives me when I catch her getting snacks before dinner. Like you have done something you don’t want me to know about.”

He shifts on the sofa so he can fully look at me. The smile on his face makes me think of Grace even more. She loves to give me those innocent smiles to distract me. The two of them

are so much alike. Too much alike.

“What did you buy?”

As an answer, he opens the laptop. What I see confuses me. Why is Quinn looking at architecture plans on Daniel’s computer? However, when I inspect the layout and the name. of the lake nearby, I know where this house is being built. Along the lake.

Wait, why is Daniel building a house near our grandparents?

“I didn’t know he was planning on building a house out there.”

“He isn’t. This is our house.”

I can’t help the surprise I feel. How long has he and my brother been working on this? I had no idea they were even in contact with each other.

“I can see you showed her the design?” Daniel says from the doorway.

“She gave me that look she gives Grace when she has done something wrong.”

“The mother look. I see. Well, Annie, what do you think? It is just the first draft. I can change anything you guys don’t like.”

Daniel sits on the chair Kris was in earlier. His face looks smug. I have so many d**n questions. So, I decide to ask the first one that comes to mind.

“When did you two talk about this, and how did Quinn get your number?”

My brother laughs, then shakes his head. “Who do you think gave it to him? Our dear mother, of course. It was the talk about building a house on your property at the lake that gave her the idea of having him call me.”

Because who else would know what I would want in a house than my architect brother with whom I talked about it with. D**n, our mother never missed a thing, does she?”

Daniel laughs, then points at the laptop that is now on Quinn’s lap. “What do you think? Quinn here actually remembered things you told him in that past that I forgot about. I think we made a good team with this project.”

I look at both of them with a stunned expression on my face. My mother was clever in giving Quinn my brother’s phone number. Daniel has designed some stunning homes.

Sow her the three

maional modet,” Danid says

Que d**ks to the next slide and my breath cathes in my throat. There, in all its glory, is

› @ream vacation house. It has the perfect misture of stone, wood, and glass. There is an

per-level deck that overlooks the lake. Planter boxes surrounded the patio below for

(4 small stone path leads down the hill to the boat dock at the edge of the lake. It is the perfect spot to sit and fish. Grandpa will love it

“When can we build it?

Jamel laughs. “Easy there, Sprite. We still have to go over everything with you. Which w have plenty of time to do. I have two weeks clear next month. We can go over the plans step ing step and fine tune everything.”

Soon, we all move out back and spend the rest of the night around the firepit. Max joins us once we are all settled on the lounge chairs. He joins in with our brothers as they tell Quinn mare horror stories of my childhood.

with the reason we are all here tonight was different, but I know it means a lot to Max that we all came. All for one and one for all, as we used to say when we were kids. You mess with de of us, you deal with all of us.

That is the joy of my family.