“Considering that we’re trying to bring a baby into this world, I think it would be a good idea,” Quinn said, and she couldn’t really argue with that.
“Fair enough,” Dylan said, slowly exhaling as she glanced out the window and watched as the signs announcing that they were twenty miles away from the New Hampshire border flew by. “What’s the plan?”
“We spend the next few days camping, getting to know each other and figuring out if this is even possible,” Quinn said, taking her by surprise, mostly because he refused to go camping with her after an unfortunate incident involving poison ivy when she was ten.
“And if this doesn’t work?” Dylan asked after a slight hesitation even as she told herself that she could do this.
“Then, we keep trying and if nothing changes, then we accept the loss and get an annulment,” Quinn said, making her stomach drop.
“And our deal?” she asked, forcing the words out of her mouth because she had to know.
“We’ll finish Blackwood Manor mostly to piss Brooke off,” Quinn said, making her lips twitch.
“What about B.T. Construction?” Dylan asked after a slight hesitation.
“I’ll find another way.”
CHAPTER 14
It was finally over, Quinn thought, sighing with relief as he stumbled into the in-law apartment he’d moved his shit into the other night and-
He just…
God, he honestly had no fucking clue how this happened.
After a deeply disturbing conversation about Big Bertha, they’d managed to come to an agreement to try to make this work. They stopped at a gas station so that Dylan could buy enough snacks to put a Bradford to shame, filled up on gas, and somehow managed to make it to the campsite in record time and that’s when everything started to go to hell.
They gave the campsite he’d reserved online away, leaving them with no choice but to settle for a campsite in the middle of the fucking woods instead of the one overlooking the lake. It took them an hour and a half trekking through the woods before they finally found their campsite at the bottom of a hill, surrounded by weeds, trash, and poison ivy.
He’d been pissed, but Dylan simply shrugged it off, dropped her backpack on the ground and set to work collecting trash and carrying it a half mile to the trash can that someone decided to use as a fire pit at some point. Once they were done, theycleared the weeds, grabbed the shovel and set to work leveling the ground and building a fire pit.
An hour later, they had the tent up, a fire going, and a fucking bear marking its territory. That was right around the time when he felt that it was a good time to find out if Dylan could still climb a tree.
As it turned out, she couldn’t, mostly because she was too busy telling Snuggles, and yes, she named the fucking bear, how cute he was, leaving Quinn with no choice but to throw her over his shoulder and carry her the rest of the way up the tree. That’s where they stayed for two hours, watching Snuggles tear apart their campsite and eat their food before finishing it off with a nap on top of their tent while squirrels pelted them with acorns.
When the greedy bastard finally waddled away, they climbed down the tree and that’s when the sky decided to open up, completely drenching them, and leaving them with no choice but to grab what they could salvage and head back to the truck, only to end up sliding back down the fucking hill and into the puddle of mud that had formed in the middle of their campsite. It took them another hour to find the trail, but they’d finally managed to make it back to his truck. Without a word, they climbed into the truck, threw it into reverse and drove, hitting every stop sign, red light, and a three-hour traffic jam along the way and now…
Now he was fucking done.
He was going to take a shower and pass the fuck out, Quinn decided with a firm nod as he stumbled across the hardwood floor, leaving behind a mixture of watery mud, leaves, and, for some fucking reason, grape soda as he slowly, so goddamn slowly, made his way to the bathroom. Once he was there, he closed the bathroom door behind him, spent the next fifteen minutes struggling to pull his wet clothes off, and then finally, stepped into the shower and sighed with relief when hot water sprayed down on him, letting him know that it was finally over.
He'd fucked up, Quinn realized as the hot water slowly began to work the strain from his sore muscles. He never should have brought her there, but he’d told himself that it didn’t count. It was just camping. A short fucking trip into the woods to get to know his wife, but he’d fucked up and he had no idea how.
They weren’t neighbors.
They weren’t in love.
He didn’t lose his fucking mind and drag her over state lines and in front of a nervous Justice of the Peace.
He’d never even kissed her.
Bradfords weren’t supposed to go on a honeymoon before their first anniversary unless they wanted it to end in disaster, which was why he’d been really fucking careful when he decided to bring her on this trip. He never thought of it as a honeymoon, but somehow, he’d triggered the curse and he had no fucking idea how.
Which made him wonder why the rules were affecting them.
A few minutes later, he was stumbling out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist as he made his way to his room, more than ready to pass out and forget this day ever happened. He dried off, tossed his towel aside, and pulled on a pair of boxer briefs before he dropped face-first onto his old bed.
It wasn’t as comfortable as the bed upstairs, but he didn’t care, Quinn decided as he rolled over onto his back and-
