just gonna lie down like that?” She pushes me out of the way, and extends a hand for Quinn. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Um…”
“I’m Maddi, and I’m an outsider too. Different family, different world. I didn’t grow up ‘on the estate’,” she makes the finger quotes, “like the rest of them, so it took me a minute to acclimatize. If you need help, or a safe space away from the crazy—”
“We are not crazy,” Bry grumbles. “Dammit, Turdsky. Why do you have to default to the Turd way of thinking?”
“Because Stomper is starting to look a little pale. New place, new people, and word on the street is she doesn’t wanna be here.” Maddi stops and peeks a little closer at Quinn. “What happened to your hand?”
“Um… brawl in a bar?”
Bry dissolves into piggy snorts. “Sounds about right. Did you win?”
Quinn stands taller. Prouder. “I didn’t lose.”
“And your shoulder?” Maddi prompts. “Brawl?”
“Work. It’s really not a big deal.” She reaches up to start untying the knot I made eight or so hours ago. “It doesn’t hurt or anything.”
“Leave it on,” I growl. Then I turn to Bry. “Where’s Bean? Maybe she can take a look.”
“I’m in here!” my sister shouts from somewhere inside my house.
My eyes shoot wide with surprise, my heart gallops for just a moment, then I bowl past Bry and knock him aside as I race inside to find my living room filled with people. So many fucking people.
My sister sits on her dog. On. Because he’s mentally… challenged, and clearly wanted to follow Giselle outside. Bean’s fiancé sits on my couch. Evie, my exceptionally pregnant cousin, sits beside her, and on a recliner across from her, Ben watches her stomach like it’s a ticking time bomb. Brooke – Bry’s sister – sits on another couch, right beside her daughter and her man, and around them, my aunts and uncles.
“Mom and Dad?” My eyes shoot to them, to home.
Mom moves forward and lets some of her bravado slip. She’s the non-emotional chick in her group, the fighter, the poor kid from the streets, but she rushes forward now and plasters her body against mine.
She releases a huge breath, as though she’s been holding it since I left town, and though she cinches her arms around my body and makes the injuries on my back sting like a bitch, I say nothing, I don’t react. I merely hold on tight and let her take what she needs to feel better.
“I missed you.” She squeezes tighter still, and sniffles. “Dammit, Jamie, I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Mom. You okay?”
“Yeah.” Another sniffle. A discreet wipe of her nose. “We were getting updates from Soph while you were gone.” She pulls back to study my face. “Would it kill you to call your mother sometime?”
I choke out a laugh, but then I remember Quinn. Her fear of going to the estate because of the crowd. The fact she’s not in here, but still standing on the porch with Bry. “Shit, hold on.”
I release my mom, and dash back into the hall. Bry and Maddi have stepped inside, but I burst onto the porch to find Quinn standing exactly where I left her, with her pinky nail being mutilated between her teeth, and her hands shaking.
Literally quivering.
“Come inside.”
“Jamie, I…” She takes a step back. “I can’t.”
“You can. And you will.” I reach out again. “Come inside and say hey to everyone. I want Bean to take a look at your shoulder, then I’ll get them all to leave.”
“Jamie.” She takes another step back, until I worry about her proximity to the edge of the porch. “I can’t go in there. The last time I saw these people, I was running away with a wanted felon. I left you without a word. I broke your heart, and I lied. Oh god,” she whimpers. “To them, my name is Cam. I’m a liar, Jamie. I’m a horrible person. And not one thing I told them was truth.”
“Your soul was truth.” I step forward and snag her hand when she goes to take another step back. If I didn’t, she’d have stepped straight off the wooden porch and slammed to her back. “Your heart was truth. Your kindness, your wit, your butt chin.”
“Shut up!” She tries to smack me, but between her sore hand and her busted arm, she doesn’t have much to work with. “Jamie, just let me go. I’ll get a hotel in town or something.”
“No, you’re staying with me. Come