With Every Heartbeat

He blew out a relieved-sounding breath. “Cora says I sang a song to her on the karaoke.” Rolling his eyes, he gave a rueful laugh. “That must’ve been awful.”



No, it really hadn’t been. He’d had a good voice, a voice I could’ve listened to forever.



Then a thought struck me. Had Cora not told him I’d sung that song with him?



My bottom lip quivered, but I bit the inside of my cheek and refused to cry.



The professor started class, but apparently Quinn was in a chatty mood. He began to write on his notepad before he bumped his leg into mine to get my attention.



“I have a favor to ask.”



I looked up at him, and he smiled at me big, his dimple melting my resistance. No way could I deny him anything. “What’s that?” I wrote back.



“Would you be willing to skip classes tomorrow and go with me to help pick out a ring...for Cora?”



I stared at his words. Then I reread them.



A buzzing filled my ears and lead weighed down my stomach. But no matter how many times I read his words, they said exactly the same thing every time.



I must’ve stared too long, because Quinn nudged my knee again.



I veered my gaze up to his face. The question in his eyes snapped me back to the present. I blinked, then blinked a little more before I mouthed the word, “Wow.”



It wasn’t necessarily a good wow, but he smiled anyway as if pleased by my reaction. His eyes lit up, his mouth swooped into that sexy curve I loved, and his entire face just...glowed.



He was happy, so freaking happy while I was afraid I might vomit. I closed my mouth and forced each breath through my nose. Then I nodded because I was totally unable to write the word yes.



“So...this was unexpected,” I finally found the courage to admit the next day.



I sat in the passenger seat of Quinn’s truck as he drove us to the jewelry store. So he could buy Cora an engagement ring.



He glanced at me. “Hmm?”



“Your, you know...” I flailed out a hand. “The ring. Your engagement. I didn’t... I mean, I didn’t realize you were that serious about her...that you guys were that serious.”



His cheeks reddened as he grinned out the front windshield. “Well...yeah. It was pretty unexpected. I mean, I hadn’t been planning it or anything.”



“But yesterday you just, what...woke up with a wild hair to propose marriage to someone?”



Okay, I might’ve sounded a tad bit bitter there, because he glanced at me in surprise.



“I mean…” I rushed to add, except he was already shaking his head.



“Cora isn’t just someone. She’s my girlfriend. I’ve been dating her for months. We’re in love.” He cocked me a searching glance. “You don’t think I should ask her? You think it’s too soon?”



Face flooding with heat, I waved my hand. “I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t ask.”



He nodded. “Then you think I should?”



Grr. Why was he making me answer this? I just wanted to lean forward and bang my head against the dashboard. I was the last person on earth who should answer that question.



All the no reasons floated through my head first.



Because I want you for myself.



Because she lies.



You’re too young. You haven’t dated her long enough. She doesn’t even like football. She lies. And I want you for myself.



Ugh. I couldn’t tell him any of that.



So I thought up the yes reasons.



She’s sick and she needs support, the kind someone warmhearted like you could give. Any woman would be lucky and honored to receive a question like that from you.



You love her.



And with that reason in my head, I lost my taste for all the yes motives. I stared out the side window of his truck. He loved her, and there was no way to argue my way around that.



“I think you should do what you feel in your heart is the right thing to do.”



Quinn was quiet for a minute. “She woke up so happy on Sunday morning. I mean, she even said Saturday night was the best night of her life.”



No, it had been the best night of my life. And then Cora had stolen it from me by hopping onto that stage and kissing him after he’d sung that song to me.



“And I can’t remember what happened, but something did. Something big. I think it was something amazing.”



I swallowed, sinking lower in my seat, wondering if it had been something amazing with me…or something amazing with Cora. I was tempted to tell him…about us, how we’d talked, flirted, almost kissed, how he’d gazed into my eyes when we’d sung that song together. But what if I was wrong? What if the amazing thing he thought he remembered had really been something afterward that had happened with Cora?