Chapter 15

Just go inside. Kiera inhaled deeply, her hands still on the steering wheel even though the car was in park. She was trying to psych herself up to go inside Quinn’s studio, the light clearly on through the garage door windows. With every passing minute since she’d left the Kavanaghs’ house, her nerves had been getting the better of her and her emotions were sliding all over the place.

One second, she was happy and touched the man she was with loved her so much.

The next, she was pissed as hell he’d kept it from her for so long.

Then there was the guilt, a heavy knot in her stomach as she thought of how badly she’d hurt him and not even known it.

Intimidation snuck in next, making her wonder if she should end things now and save him another heartache. What if something happened down the line that separated them? She’d potentially break his heart all over again, just like Kane had warned. Not to mention the pressure from the rest of his family, who seemed overly invested in her relationship with Quinn—which she hadn’t minded until she realized there was a whole backstory she was unaware of.

But she was back to happy again just as fast, because she couldn’t imagine anything that would keep her apart from Quinn now that she knew how great being in a relationship with him was.

He was stubborn and sweet, dominating when she needed it, but passive when she didn’t. She adored his wit and sarcasm, and he always had her laughing. He gave her room to be her, yet was never far enough away that she couldn’t call on him. She felt safe with him, comfortable, and like she was truly valued. The more she thought about it, the more it became apparent that what she really felt was loved.

Kiera wondered if Dee had been right all along.

Maybe she had known Quinn loved her…and taken him for granted.

Swallowing whatever courage she could muster, Kiera climbed out of her car and walked in the dark over to the small door on the side of the garage. She tried it, and it swung open easily.

Blinking, she adjusted to the brightness of his studio. A loud whirring, sparking sound arose from the far end.

Quinn stood over a large workbench, his cane leaning against its side. He actually looked perfectly fine standing there without it, and the physical therapist part of her was impressed.

A large metal mask was over his face and he held a blowtorch in one hand. Sparks flew in every direction as he leaned over a sculpture she couldn’t quite distinguish yet. Not wanting to interrupt and cause some horrific fire-and-metal accident, she waited.

He lifted a large piece of metal she recognized as a motorcycle’s exhaust system and began welding it to his work. His movements were quick and purposeful, but there was a distinct anger to his actions that set her on edge. The muscles in his back stretched and flexed, and Kiera found her mind drifting in another direction entirely.

There was passion in what he was doing, even in how he was doing it. Every part of her body responded to that, loving the intensity with which he approached his art. She found the entire thing unbelievably attractive—him working with metal and fire with only his hands and a few tools. It was masculine and commanding, and she knew at that moment this wasn’t a man she’d ever walk away from again.

He was her protector, yet he also intimidated her just enough to keep her on her toes. He was her lover, both giving and punishing in the way he took her body to new places. He was her friend—her best friend—in both the platonic sense and the sense that she couldn’t imagine a day going by she didn’t share with him.

They’d spent almost six years apart, and she was only just now realizing how empty she’d been without him.

The blowtorch flickered and went out. Quinn pushed his mask up, exhaling loudly as he placed it down on the table. She caught the corner of his eye, and he did a double take.

“Been there long?” he asked, taking his mask off entirely and placing it next to the blowtorch on the table. He began pulling off the protective gear he was wearing on his chest and arms and dropping it down as well.

“Just for a minute,” she replied, then held up his coat. “You left your coat and your phone.”

He glanced at it a moment, before his dark eyes turned back to her, surveying her slowly. There was a good fifteen feet between them at least, but it felt like miles.

“Thanks for dropping it off.”

“Quinn—” she began.

He pointed to a side table next to her, cutting her off. “You can leave it on that table. Thanks.”

Kiera stared at him for a few moments, her mouth in a thin line, before she walked over and deposited the jacket on the table. What the hell is going on here? She wasn’t sure why he was being so hostile, whether it was hurt or embarrassment, or whether he really just didn’t want anything to do with her. He clearly wanted her to leave.

Turning her back on him, she headed for the door she’d come in. She pulled her jacket tighter around her as the cold air hit her once she was outside, trudging through the dark to her car.

Tears welled over her lower lids, and she didn’t try to stop them this time. She hadn’t cried over a boy…ever. Not until Quinn. Not until her heart had been open enough to be hurt.

A panicky feeling rose in her chest as she realized what they had might actually not last…that he could end things between them that easily. Just when she was all in, and couldn’t for one second figure out how she’d keep going without him beside her.

“Why did you leave, Keeks?” His voice rang out clearly in the frigid air, the hush of night stilling everything else around them.

She stopped walking, wiping at her face quickly before lifting her chin and turning back to him. He took up the entire doorway, illuminated by the studio lights behind him.

He took a step closer, his cane wobbling ever so slightly on the driveway’s gravel.

“You didn’t start classes for two more weeks. You didn’t even say goodbye.”

Kiera swallowed, her heart squeezing in her chest as she remembered her excitement to start college. She’d wanted to travel and explore Seattle for a few days before moving into the dorms early due to her honors status. But he was right. She hadn’t said goodbye.

She couldn’t.

He was a few steps closer now. “So, tell me, Keeks. Why did you leave me?”

“Why didn’t you ask me to stay?” she responded, dodging his question. “Why didn’t you tell me what that night meant to you? What I meant to you?” She held back a sob as she tried to push her tears down, but they slid down her cheeks anyway. “Why didn’t you ask me to stay, Quinn?”

Her last question came out almost strangled sounding, so filled with pain she didn’t even know she was harboring. Now that the words were out there, hanging between them, she could feel her chest splitting open, bleeding onto the sharp gravel at his feet.

His eyes bore into hers, neither one of them saying anything, but both standing their ground. She wiped at her face again, determined to show strength and not bawl in front of him.

Quinn looked down. When he finally lifted his eyes up to hers again, they were pained. “Will you stay now, Keeks? Please…stay.”

All the tension drained from her body and relief seeped into her heart. That was all she wanted and he’d just given it to her—for him to conquer his fears of rejection and just ask her to be with him. It was what she had been asking for since they’d first started dating, yet it had always felt like she was the one pushing for their relationship.

Now, she realized, it had always been the opposite.

When she got to him, he reached out a hand and interlocked his fingers with hers. They stood in the doorway, not outside and not inside, staring at each other as she waited for him to say something…anything.

Quinn’s gaze flickered down to her lips, then back to her eyes. “Can I tell you a story?”

Frowning at the tangent, she decided to go with it. “Sure.”

“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who had more guts and confidence than someone three times her age. She didn’t need anybody, but there was a little boy who didn’t have that same spunk, and he needed her. Out of that, a friendship grew and it would quickly become the most defining relationship in his life.”

Kiera’s knees trembled as she listened, his hand holding hers and his dark eyes distant.

Quinn continued. “The little boy was head over heels in love, but he was too young to know what that dizzy, floating feeling he had every time he looked at her was. She never seemed to notice, and he was okay with that, because he was a kid—what did he know about love? He waited, and it killed him to watch her pine over other boys, but he waited.”

“Quinn,” Kiera started, shaking her head as a weight settled on her chest that felt like it would never lift.

He didn’t wait for her to finish. “Then one day, the girl looked at him the same way he’d looked at her for years, and they weren’t so little anymore. They were young adults and love made a little more sense, but it was still so damn terrifying. For one brief evening, they made love, they were in love. He knew she felt it, too. And then she was gone. So, he waited again.”

“Quinn, stop.” Tears were pouring down her face; she was unable to restrain them any longer as she leaned against the doorframe they were standing in. She yanked her hand from his, but he reached for her. She shoved him away, a feeble smack as her hands landed against his chest. “This isn’t my fault! I never meant to hurt you. You’re being unfair—I didn’t know and you never told me. You should have told me!”

She smacked his chest again, but Quinn grabbed her wrists, pinning her entire body against his as he pushed her back against the doorframe. “Keeks, let me finish the story.”

“No,” she cried. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear how I’m the worst person that ever lived because I broke your heart when I was eighteen freaking years old! I cared about you, too. I always did.”

Quinn exhaled sharply, irritation flashing over his face. “Kiera.” His lips descended on hers and she fought it for a moment, but barely. She dissolved against him, their lips fighting and angry, but also loving and needy.

When he pulled away, Kiera kept her eyes closed, focusing only on his breath on her cheek, his hands on her wrists pressed against his chest. When he spoke again, her heart pulsed with every word.

“While the young boy waited, the young girl chased her dreams and figured out who she was away from the shield he’d always held around her. And he saw her occasionally over the years, but she was still figuring herself out. So he kept waiting.”

She opened her eyes slightly, peering up at him. He let go of her wrists, pinning her against the doorframe with his body as he used his fingertips to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“The boy was now a man and the girl now a woman, and the two met again.” His voice was thick with emotion, and she was almost sure she saw a glisten of tears in his eyes while he stared at her in earnest.

Her heart thudded as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed the side of her face to his chest, tucking her head under his chin.

“What happened next?” she whispered, more than a little afraid of the answer.

“She came home, and there was no more waiting.” Quinn’s voice was soft in her ear, and she trembled against him. “He finally found the courage to tell the girl, now a woman, he’d been in love with her for more than twenty years. He was still in love with her, and he always would be. She was his reason.”

“His reason for what?” she whispered even more softly as she clutched him tighter, certain she’d fall apart if he wasn’t holding her.

“For everything, Keeks.” He pulled away enough to search her eyes. “You’re my reason for everything. You always have been.”

Tears slid down her cheeks again, but she didn’t try to hide them because they weren’t sad. They weren’t painful. They weren’t filled with anything but adoration for the man pouring his heart out to her.

He was right. She’d moved on, and she’d needed to. She’d needed to grow up and stand on her own, just like her mother had always raised her to do. But a part of her had always known he would be there when she came home. He was her home.

“So, you’re in love with me, Quinn Kavanagh?” she asked, nibbling on the corner of her bottom lip as she looked at him.

“Yes, I am, Kiera Finley,” he replied, his eyes dropping to her lips, then back to catch her gazing at his mouth, as well. His dark eyes heated and flared, and he pushed his hips against hers, backing her farther against the doorframe.

Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands and brought his lips to hers. Their kiss was soft, sweet, slow…genuine in its timidity, and open in its honesty. It was a fresh start, a clean slate, and yet the beginning of a story already half written.

“Quinn?” she asked, trying to catch her breath as she parted their lips for only a moment.

He paused as she organized her thoughts.

“I just…I want to be honest with you. I’m falling for you, I know I am. I think I always have been in some ways.” Her tongue slid across her lower lip. “But I’m twenty years behind.”

Quinn smiled and kissed her again. “I’ll wait.”

Her heart exploded into a million little pieces at his acceptance, his love, and his determination. He’d hold her heart even when she wasn’t ready to give it to him.

He pressed his forehead against hers and kissed the tip of her nose. “Let’s get inside. It’s cold out here, and I want to show you the latest piece I’ve been working on.”

She laced her fingers with his and followed him inside. “I get to see? Finally!”

Quinn chuckled. “Only because I love you.”

She beamed, hugging his arm to her chest and trying to figure out how she’d gotten so lucky.