“Oh, you are just too funny, Evie,” Tim replied. His brown eyes, fringed in the prettiest lashes I’d ever seen on a guy, found their way to mine. “Quinn, my new best friend,” he said with a glare aimed at Evie. He came over to the kitchen to shake my hand, Mac hot on his heels.
“So what’s going on with you and Travis? He’s my boss you know, and hot, so it’s my right as your new best friend to get all the details.”
Mac took hold of my hand as though to yank me away, and Tim grabbed my other hand, narrowing his eyes on Mac. “Back off, Mac. I was here first, only polite enough not to muscle her into the pantry like your usual M.O.”
I had to give the little guy credit for having the balls to stare Mac down. I’m not sure who won because the front door slammed, and Jake wandered through into the kitchen, eyeing our odd little clinch with raised brows before opening the fridge. Mac shoved me into the walk-in pantry, Tim right behind us, and wedged the door shut.
The three of us stood there in the dark, panting a little at the scuffle. I heard a muffled sound and a dim light clicked on before flickering off again.
“Shit. The bulb blew.”
“So Quinn and Travis have a thing,” Mac announced as we stood in the dark. “That’s why you’re here, Tim. Quinn has a date tonight and needs outfitting, and I need to get Melbourne organised so it’s in your hands.”
“Mac, it’s the movies. I’m sure I have something suitable.”
“No you don’t,” she replied without hesitation.
“Why are we wedged in the pantry?”
“Because Jake’s out there and he’s pissing me off.”
“But he only just walked in the door.”
“Exactly,” she growled.
“This little pantry summit is directed at the wrong person,” Tim decided. “Seems to me that if Quinn and Travis are going on a date, they’re well on their way to getting shit together. What’s going on with you and Jake?”
I’d been wondering this myself, so I waited with interest to hear her response.
“No comment,” Mac snapped.
“Ha! We all know no comment is euphemism for shit is going on. Right, Quinn?”
I could hear the withering tone in Tim’s voice and replied, “We do?”
“Shove your euphemisms where the sun don’t shine, Timmy boy.”
“Don’t call me Timmy boy,” he snapped.
The pantry door flew open, light flooding the little space and I blinked rapidly, bringing Lucy into focus. “What’s going on in here?”
“Pantry summit,” Tim offered, squinting in the sudden light.
Lucy glared. “Who are you?”
“I’m Tim.” He raised his brows and looked Lucy up and down. “And who are you? By the attitude I’m going with Mac’s long lost sister, but you look nothing alike.”
“Watch it, Tim.” Mac shoved past him and he stumbled, grabbing hold of the pantry door to gain his balance. “I’ll be in the back office.”
“I’m Lucy, Quinn’s friend. I’m here to take her shopping.”
“Me too and me too. I’m going to make a cuppa. Anyone want one?”
Everyone chorused a “yes please,” and he mumbled, “figures,” as he trotted back into the kitchen.
“It’s just the movies, Luce,” I told her as we sat down in the living room where Evie was now splayed out on her own. “It’s no big deal.”
“You never date,” she told me, perching on the end of the armchair. “Of course it’s a big deal.”
Evie’s eyes shifted from the television to me. “You don’t date?”
“Enough. No more talk about the date or shopping.” I pursed my lips and focused on the television.
Tim came over and plopped a mug on the table in front of me. “No idea if you wanted tea or coffee or how you have it, but hey, you didn’t have to make it.” Taking a step back, he put his hands on his hips, looking at me with wide-eyed hope. “So is Casey coming shopping too?”
“Why would Casey be coming shopping?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Bodyguard duty. Don’t you all get escorted everywhere you go by hot badass guys when shit’s going down?”
“Shit’s not going down,” Lucy informed him. “Shit is currently contained.”
“Oh,” Tim muttered, his shoulders slumping as though disappointed that shit was not, in fact, going down.
“Why are you so keen on Casey going?” Lucy asked.
Tim looked at Evie and me in turn. “She hasn’t met Casey, has she?”
We both shook our heads, Evie grinning.
“Honey,” Tim said to Lucy, “Everyone says Casey looks just like Jensen Ackles,” he began. I bit the insides of my cheeks as Casey walked down the hall from the office and came to stand behind Tim. “But Casey is so f**king all that, he could have a show all his own and screw calling it Supernatural, you could call it Badassnatural because that guy is so f**king cool he was born an ice cube.”
Silence reigned until Evie made a choking sound. Tim closed his eyes and I really, honestly, felt for him in that moment.
“He’s ah, behind me, isn’t he?”
Everyone did their best not to laugh, but I met Casey’s eyes and they were crinkling.
Evie tossed a cushion at Casey. “Hear that, hotdog? You’re the man.”
Casey showed off his lightning Badassnatural reflexes by deflecting the tossed cushion, and it bounced off Tim’s head as a final insult.
Despite his face flaming brightly, Tim pursed his lips. “Takes a badass to know one.”
Evie raised her brow. “I thought the first rule of being a badass was that you never talked about being a—”
“Don’t start throwing rules in my face,” Tim interrupted.
“Enough,” Casey growled and stooped to pick up the cushion and toss it back on the couch as Evie introduced him to Lucy.
“I’ll leave you kids to it,” he muttered after nodding his hello and turned towards the front door. “I’m going home to sleep.”
“So that’s a no to coming shopping with us today?” Tim called out.
Casey threw an incredulous look over his shoulder as the front door swung wide and he stepped out, shutting it behind him without another word.
***
Chapter Thirteen
“Stop fidgeting,” Mac hissed from behind me.
I watched her fiddle a curl into submission as I stood in front of the mirror of the wardrobe door. Mac had a good foot of height on me, so her look of concentration as she tackled my wispy strands was easily visible. She grabbed the hairspray off the bench. “You and Evie could win awards for being fidget sticks.”
“No spray!”
She held it like a weapon aimed at my head and raised her brows as though I’d just said “death to shopping,” something I’d come to realise was her holy grail in life.
“What?”
“I don’t like it.”
“But…” Mac trailed off.
“Beth loved hairspray. The smell makes my stomach churn.” Not a strand of her hair dared to move when Beth tossed back her unending supply of booze.
“Beth?”
“My mother,” I mumbled.
“Tell me about your mum.”
“You saw the photos, right?” Mac paused her movements, her nostrils flaring dangerously. “I don’t have one. I never did, not really.”
She set the hairspray down and looked at me through the mirror. “Your mother didn’t deserve you,” she said gravely and squeezed her arm around my shoulders. “Don’t let the bitch get you down.”
The front door opened and closed when she went back to fussing with my hair, and from downstairs we heard Henry say, “Where are you taking her?”
A deep murmur was the reply, and my belly fluttered.
“Travis is here,” I muttered, examining my length in the mirror and my new outfit. If nerves hadn’t already exhausted me, a shopping trip with both Lucy and Tim was enough to send me running for a nicotine fix and I didn’t even smoke. Both of them had whacked ideas of what constituted an appropriate outfit for a trip to the movies. Lucy steered me towards everything that screamed “tramp/whore/here are my boobs in case you weren’t sure I had any attached to my chest.” Tim was aiming for glamour goddess, which was actually quite sweet, but I was no Evie. Shimmery backless tops and tight leather pants were a little beyond my reality. Between the three of us, we managed to settle on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans with side zippers, a pair of brown knee length boots, and a low back gold metallic top.
“We want her back by midnight,” Cooper said.
“What the fuck, dude,” came Frog’s reply. “She’s not Cinder-f**king-rella.”
There was more low murmuring that had my ears straining to hear. Mac’s eyes met mine in the mirror after she’d finished glaring my strands of hair into submission, as though hopeful that would do the job hairspray couldn’t.
“What are they doing down there?”
Mac winked, her hands turning to her own head of hair as she smoothed the soft, gleaming waves. “Playing big brother it sounds like.”
I clutched my hands together, moving to sit on the edge of the bed and slide on my boots. “They’re being silly.”
Mac sat down beside me and slung an arm over my shoulders. “Do you have any brothers, Quinn?”
“No.”
“Wrong answer,” she replied.
My vision blurred.
“How about I go tell Travis to bugger off and we have a girls night in?”
I huffed out a short laugh. “Did I do that bad a job on my face?”
She nodded. “It’s terrible. Next time let me help you instead of locking your bedroom door. That was really unfair and now it’s your own fault because you look really shitty.”
I chuckled and she looked at me sideways, grinning.
“No.”
“No?”
“I’ve never been on a date before. I need to just get this over with.”
Mac jostled my shoulders. “Okay. Well first you need to relax. You look like you’re about to ralph all over your new boots.”
There had been no polite, gentleman-like behaviour from Travis when it came to choosing the movie. We’d bickered over the offerings and ended up with something that involved wild shootouts, high tech gadgets, and fist fights. At one point I’d leaned over and joked that it was probably just his everyday life and he could write the movie. He’d chuckled and took hold of my hand, pulling it into his lap so our linked fingers rested on his thigh. He whispered in my ear that he should only be so lucky, and throughout the rest of the movie, he proceeded to pick apart the holes in the storyline.
My mind had barely paid attention to any of it because he was holding my hand. Maybe I was just odd, or the dating thing too new, but the gesture felt more intimate than anything I’d ever done with another man in my life.
Now he was taking me to dinner, which from the outside was a restaurant beautifully lit up in colours of gold and red. Reaching the exterior steps, the back of my neck prickled and I froze. The feeling was the same from before, but that didn’t make sense because David hadn’t been released. I made a mental note to get in touch with Mitch in the morning just to be sure.