Page 91 of No Cap

I liked the sound of that a whole lot more than I probably should have.

I chuckled against his chest, but then wrapped my arms around his muscular torso and held on. “I’m giving up that life. I already told Kaylee that I wasn’t going to do anything to the douchebag anymore. You told me some wise words, and I took them to heart.”

Plus, Quincy wasn’t being a butthead anymore.

And since Quincy was a cop, I needed to make a choice, and it was him.

“Why did you have that look on your face when I walked through the door?” I asked.

He groaned. “You’re not going to like this…”

Then he proceeded to tell me everything and not a bit of it surprised me in the least about my parents.

I had wondered where they got the money to do what they did.

I mean, when I was a kid growing up, those kinds of things weren’t available to me.

You don’t just walk into that kind of life without winning the lottery or something.

Which, I guess, for them they did.

Until they were caught.

The assholes.

I pulled back, and then rubbed my face with my hands, hating the way my parents always tried to cut corners.

“Let me tell you a story,” I said, eyes alight with fire upon hearing everything he’d told me about Tayson and my parents. “When I was ten, I asked for a Barbie for Christmas. They didn’t get it for me. They got me the wrapping paper and gave the actual Barbie to my sister. When I was twelve, I asked for three dollars to go on a field trip. They refused, and then I had to sit at the school because I couldn’t pay. When my class got back from the field trip, they told me they saw my mom, sister, and brother there, all of them in the gift shop buying souvenirs. When I was fifteen, I bought a car, fixed it up, and they sold it and kept the money. When I was eighteen, I moved out with the clothes on my back. So, when I tell you that this is their problem, I’m not lying. I tried. I really did. It’s not my circus anymore.”

That’s when he suggested that we go out to eat.

“We can go eat. Anywhere you want to go,” he said.

“How about that hamburger place next to the hospital?” I requested.

He blinked. “You just had that for lunch.”

I was already shaking my head. “When I went to eat it, I had to pee really bad. So, I put it on the table and went. Only, when I got back it was in the trash with the lunch you packed, too. There was a bunch of unknown liquid on it. So, I couldn’t eat it.”

Quincy’s eyes narrowed. “That’s fuckin’ bullshit.”

It really was.

“Only, if we go there,” I said as I thought about how nice it would be to take my bra off and collapse on the couch. “You have to get me ice cream after. From the grocery store on the corner. They have the kind I like.”

He winked. “Done.”

“You know,” Quincy muttered under his breath. “You’re acting a whole lot like Tay right now.”

My head whipped around, and my eyes narrowed. “Take that back.”

He held up his hands. “It’s just that he was a shit all day, too. Though, at least you are cuter when you’re mean.”

I flipped him off.

* * *

We were placing the carton of ice cream into the conveyor belt of the checkout when a woman sporting way more items than ‘15 or less’ cut us off.