Page 109 of No Cap

“Yeah, that’s a hard no for me, too.” Quincy winked. “Let’s eat.”

It was as he was walking me out an hour later, so full of tacos and cookies that I had to unbutton my jean shorts, that I found the courage to tell him about my insecurities, and then Kinny’s bet.

He curled a strand of hair behind my ear as I talked, then smiled at me softly.

“You and I are the real deal, darlin’,” he admitted. “The feelings I have for you aren’t something I’ve ever experienced before, and I have a feeling it’s more apt to be the love of a lifetime my dad has with my mom, than a short romance that’ll fizzle out after a couple of months.”

I sucked in a deep breath, then said, “I think I’m in love with you, Quincy Carter.”

His eyes twinkled as he twisted us, pressing my back to the wall of the police station, and said, “That’s good, Hollis Aue. Because I’m drowning in my feelings for you.”

My husband is the best. He hates all the people I hate.

—Hollis to Germaine

HOLLIS

A few years later

“Hey, babe!” Quincy called from the back bedroom area. “Can you help me find my gun?”

His gun.

His gun?

“How do you misplace your gun?” I called out, my book dropping onto my stomach as I stared in annoyance at the hallway in which I’d just heard him from.

“Very, very carefully,” Quincy replied back. “Please?”

Sighing, I rocked my way out of the couch that I’d just collapsed on, then stood up.

My knees, ankles, and shins ached.

I walked through the house I’d helped design with Quincy after he told me he loved me.

A few months after that day at the police station where I laid it all out, he’d asked me to help him design the rest of his house with him. And, once that house was finished, he asked me to marry him in the kitchen I’d painstakingly helped him decorate.

I dropped my lease the next day and Zilla and I moved in with him the following one.

We got married at his parents’ place, right under the tree that apparently he’d broken his arm falling out of.

Which led to me here, now.

“Wedding vows should include ‘do you promise to help him find his stuff that’s right in front of him,’” I grumbled to no one in particular. “Because lord knows you’ll be doing that forever.”

“What was that, baby?” Quincy called from the other room.

Garrett, who’d dropped by this morning on his way in to work, snickered from his spot at my counter. I shot him a quelling look.

“You,” I pointed at him. “Shut it.”

Garrett held up his hands and said, “I’m not saying a word.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Sure, you’re not.”

His smile was small, but there.

Jesus, these Carter men knew the way to my heart.