Next Man Up (Making the Score #2) - Tawdra Kandle Page 0,119
landed in Philadelphia.
I was glad to be home . . . mostly. The trip to San Francisco to visit Quinn had been like balm to my soul. I’d missed my best friend since she’d impulsively taken a temporary ghostwriting job in California, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend time in a new city that I’d always wanted to visit.
Quinn and I had had a blast. We’d eaten at quirky little restaurants, danced at hot clubs, done the touristy sight-seeing deal, stayed up late talking, drunk more than our share of wine . . . and I’d even gotten a tattoo, something I’d never really considered doing.
I hadn’t been sure what kind of permanent ink I wanted on my body. I’d hemmed and hawed at the parlor long after Quinn had finished getting her belly button pierced. Finally, her face lit up.
“You should get a star.” She touched my pendant gently. “It would be perfect.”
A star. I considered it, nodding slowly, and then I ran my fingers over the delicate bracelet that I’d never taken off, not even over these past six months.
“I want a star . . . and then I want the words ‘try everything at least once’,” I told the tattoo artist.
She’d smirked. “I like it. A great life philosophy.”
Afterwards, as Quinn and I sat at a nearby bar celebrating our new art and bling, she’d asked me about Eli. I’d been waiting for the question since I’d gotten off the plane, but she had been oddly silent on the topic.
“He . . . I guess he’s okay. I hear about him from Gia sometimes. He checks on her now and then. I know he’s living in Eatonboro, still working at the school.”
“Hmmm.” Quinn had nodded. “And have you told him yet how much you miss him? How much you love him? What’s the hold-up, Zelda? Haven’t you learned anything from Nate’s life? Time is precious. Woman up and claim that man. You want him—there’s no doubt about that.”
“It’s not that easy, doll,” I’d sighed. “I don’t want to start up with Eli just to lose it all again. I can’t do that to him—or to me.” I’d shrugged and turned the tables. “What about you? Maybe you need to take some of your own advice.”
Quinn had smiled. “I already am. Leo and I have been talking since I moved out here. Correction—we’ve been texting. But I think that’s even better. We’ve been getting real on a lot of stuff.”
“Is it good? You and Leo talking, I mean.” I’d taken a sip of my wine. “Or texting, rather.”
“It is. It’s so good. I feel like . . .” She hesitated, thinking. “I had to get away to realize a few things I might never have known. I had to recover and to recognize the part that my own decisions played in all of this mess that’s been our lives the last few years.”
“And you did that?”
She smiled. “I did. I learned that I wanted something from Leo that wasn’t fair to ask. I wanted him to validate my choices, even when they were wrong—or wrong from his point of view, anyway. I wanted his approval for marrying Nate, and that was damned unfair. It was almost cruel.” She sighed. “I spent a lot of time crying, but they were good tears.”
“Do you think you and Leo will end up together?” I needed the answer to that question. It felt as though what Quinn replied might give me hope.
“I think we will. I know we belong together. We belong to each other. He’s not perfect, and God knows I’m not either. But no one will ever love me like Leo does. No one else will ever see all of my imperfections as beauty. No one else speaks my language the way Leo does. He’s mine, and I’m his. And it’s always going to be that way, no matter else happens.”
To my horror, I’d felt tears welling up in my eyes. What Quinn had said . . . that was how I felt about Eli. He was my only someone. He was who I needed. I just wished I knew how to be the woman he needed.
Back on the ground in Philly, I sat still until the seatbelt sign blinked off and then moved out of the way, snickering as my seat mate pushed his way out ahead of me. Poor dude was eager to get clear of the crazy lady.