Quinn smiled, and for the first time in days, it rose up naturally.
“Are you two done making out yet?”
Ozzy’s voice. Jake jerked straight up, smashing the back of his head and doubling over, clutching his skull. Quinn slipped up and around the car to see Ozzy grinning wide from the open gate.
“Leave themalone, Oswald.” Evander marched into view as well, getting right up into Ozzy’s face. And his voice was raised. People would hear this.
Ozzy rounded on Evander as Quinn started on his way over to them, trying to reach the pair. He heard every word as he approached. “Take the stick out of yourass, Ev. It’s a joke.”
“Yeah, well maybe it’s not a joke tohim. Maybe he’s going through some shit with his grandpa, and us all over his house, and this new relationship with Jake.”
He knows too. He knows. Oh god. He knows for sure.
Evander jabbed a finger into Ozzy’s chest. “So drop it, you fucking douchebag.”
“Oh,I’mthe douchebag. Right.” Ozzy’s voice was louder now. Cameras had swung around. It had moved past this becoming too real. It was real, and he’d addressed it. His personal bullshit and his emotions were about to be laid bare without his consent. The thought of that chilled his blood.
“Shut thefuckup.” Jake marched up to them, left hand bloody on the back of his head, right hand clenched into a fist at his side. “Both of you. Ozzy, you’re an asshole. And Evander, what the actual hell is wrong with you? You swore up and down you wouldn’t sayanything. I told you inconfidencebecause you said we were friends, and now you’re just spouting off about it like none of that even mattered to you? Fuck!” He pulled his hand away and shook red droplets off onto the grass. “This is not the place for any of this.”
Quinn stopped and let his brain catch up, slow as it was to do so. “Wait. You told Evander? Private stuff like that and you just decided to tell someone else without talking to me? When I was obviously freaking out?” He could see his own reaction clearly enough to know thatanyoneshould know he was in a panic. He’d been raw since this whole thing started.
Ozzy spilling the beans was one thing. But Jake? He stared and waited to hear that it wasn’t true.
“He told me in confidence.” Evander’s voice was a lot quieter when he spoke. Jake seemed frozen, blanched even through his makeup.
Quinn shook his head. “You…I…”
Evander started over, his eyes wide. “I really thought I was walking the line between keeping it close to the vest and still laying into Oswald—”
“Shut up, Ev.” Jake unfroze and started toward Quinn. “I thought I could trust him. He’s not…I needed some perspective from the outside to set my head straight.”
Other members of the team were coming out, and the work in the back yard had almost completely stopped. The cameras didn’t stop, though. Quinn squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold his shit together. He had to compress it down, keep it inside. People didn’t need to know about this. He and Jake had it worked out, but now that had fallen apart. Everything had fallen apart.
He withdrew and let the cold take him. Opened his eyes. Moved to his car. “Let them know I had to run.” He wasn’t even sure who he was talking to at that point, just covering for when Eliza and the production crew inevitably came looking for him. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat, buckled in, pulled out, and drove away. The world around him was pinpointed down to the road in front of him. Anything more than that, he’d lose it.
No more losing it. No more open emotion. No more getting hurt.The memory of Hunter’s note on the coffee table crept in and he bashed it down to where it belonged. Hidden. Private. Inside himself.
He’d learn the lesson this time. Closed off was safe. Open was too risky. And that kind of trust was too precious to allow into anyone’s hands again.
Chapter thirty
Jake
Jake stared at thespot in the driveway where Quinn had been parked. Where he pulled out. Where it all collapsed. And he felt all the eyes burning into him as he just continued to stare for what seemed like forever. Maybe forever and a half.
“Relax, Jake.”
He turned slowly and saw Ozzy walking over, that stupidfuckingsmile still on his face. He shrugged.
Ozzy shrugged, like this wasn’t any sort of big deal. Like the empty space in that parking lot wasn’t a black hole, sucking everything out of the surrounding area. “Not every hookup can end with everyone happy, but you’ll find some more trade.”
“Trade?” Jake marched forward, fists clenched. Then suddenly, he’d stopped, his momentum going down. It took him until his chin met the ground to realize he’d tripped over the same root. Again.Lightning pain raced up his jaw into his ears,and the wound on the back of his head throbbed with every beat of his heart. Which was often, sped up by his anger. His blood raced and his vision narrowed until it was just Ozzy’s feet as he walked up.
Jake snatched at his ankle and crashed him down to his back, then scrabbled over the top of him, pinning him and screaming into his face. “Quinn is not some piece of ass! And I don’t know what the fuck your damage is, Ozzy, but he’s been a wreck this whole time, and even worse since you saw him coming out of the damn hotel room. You’re an asshole.” He slapped Ozzy across the face, his chest tightening. “Youhadto keep going after him. Couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut, and now he’s gone, and everything’s falling apart, and you’re not evengoodat your job.” Another slap. “That damn root’s been there since we got here and you’ve done dick to fix it.”
“Jake, come on.”
He whipped his head around to see Evander reaching for him and shook his head. “You don’t talk. What I told you wasprivate. And you’re just acting like it’s your right to blab and Quinn should be fine with it.”
