He eyes me warily as he drinks his coffee and my heart pounds as I wait for his answer. Hope wells up inside me despite the fact that I know better.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he finally says and I nod.
“Okay. What’s up?”
He shifts back and forth on his feet, staring down at his coffee mug. “I drove up to the prison to see him.”
“What?” I breathe, blinking at him in shock as a chunk of ice imbeds itself in my stomach. “Why would you do that?”
“I… I just needed to talk to him.”
“And what could you possibly need to talk to him about?”
He clears his throat. “He wrote me a letter a couple weeks back. He says he’s innocent.”
“He’s fucking lying!” I roar, slamming my fist on the table as I jerk to my feet. Clay jumps before his eyes narrow and he takes a step toward me.
“You don’t fucking know that.”
“Have you lost your goddamn mind? Have you done so many drugs that it’s literally melted your brain cells? Of course, I fucking know that he’s lying because I watched it happen. I saw everything with my own two eyes.”
“So you say but I believe him.”
I sink into my chair with a huff, shaking my head. “You’ve got to be kidding me? He’s literally sitting in jail for what he did and you think he’s innocent?”
“You don’t have to believe me,” he grits out, tossing his coffee mug into the sink where I hear it shatter. “But I’m going to find proof.”
Before I can stop him, he runs out of the house and I bury my face in my hands, trying to wrap my mind around the last ten minutes but no matter how much I go over it, it still doesn’t make sense. My muscles tense and my knee shakes as I keep repeating what Clay said, over and over again, until I feel like I’m losing my mind. Standing up, I grab a piece of paper off the counter and leave a note for Iris before I run out to my truck and fire it up.
There’s only one person who has answers for me and it doesn’t matter how much I don’t want to ever speak to him again. For Clay, I will.
The hour long drive to the prison passes in a blur of memories and pain and as I pull into the lot, my stomach flips. I haven’t set eyes on the man in years and I never thought I’d be here. My hands shake as I walk across the lot and step into the lobby, where I sign in. After an officer pats me down and I leave my cell phone and keys at the front desk, they lead me back to a room with plexiglass dividing it in half and phones in each cubby.
I take one of the chairs on the end and wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans as I wait for the guards to bring him out. My heart races and memories start to overwhelm me. The door in the back of the room opens and he steps out, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and cuffs around his wrists and ankles. His gaze zeroes in on me and I feel like throwing up and running from the room but I stay seated, leveling him with a steely glare despite the chaos raging through my soul.
He sits across from me with a surprised expression and we both pick up the phones at the same time and press them to our ears.
“Lucas?” he asks, his voice just like I remember from all those years ago and I nod.
“Hi, Dad.”
Chapter Nine
Quinn
“Quinn, I have Nick, the lead singer from The Renegades, on line one again,” Willa says, poking her head in my office and I sigh as I look up from the paperwork on my desk. This is the third time he’s called today and each call starts out with a silly question about the event before he starts flirting with me and before I’m able to end the call, he asks me out.
“What does he want this time?”
She shakes her head. “I'm not sure.”
“Just uh… just tell him I’m in a meeting and answer any question he has,” I say with a tired sigh.
“You got it.”
“Oh, and, Willa? Please remove him from our vendor list so we don't have this problem again.”
She laughs. “It’s already done. You’re too nice, Quinn.”
“You might be right about that.”
“Do you want me to go grab you some lunch?” she asks but before I can answer, the front door opens and she turns away from me. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah,” a voice answers from the front office and I smile. “I’m looking for Quinn.”
“Your name?”
“Lucas Smith.”
Willa glances back at me and I try to hide the wide smile on my face as I nod but when she narrows her eyes, I know I failed. She studies me with a quirked brow for a second before she turns back to the front door.
“Go ahead.”
As soon as Lucas walks into my office, my heart flutters in my chest and I drop my attempts to hide my grin as my gaze drops down his body and back up again. How the hell does the man make a t-shirt and jeans look better than anyone else?
“Hey, gorgeous.”
I toss my pen down on the desk. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Should I be somewhere else?” he asks, a playful smile on his face and I shake my head.
“You know, now that you mention it, I think this is exactly where you should be.”
“Good to know. Are you hungry? I was hoping I could take you out to lunch.”
“I’m starving,” I answer and he crosses the office until he’s leaning over me as I sit in my chair.
“Can I steal you away for an hour?”
I purse my lips as I meet his eyes. “Only if you kiss me first.”
“Well, I don’t know, Miss Dawson… that’s a difficult request.”
“Difficult to kiss me?” I ask, arching a brow. “I’m offended.”
He shakes his head and leans in until his lips gently brush against mine. “No, difficult to stop kissing you once I start.”
I'm reminded of the other night when he dropped me off after our date and the ten minutes we spent making out on my front porch like a couple of teenagers before Alice interrupted us.
“Good answer.”
His lips stretch into a smile against mine before he leans down and steals a kiss. My entire body relaxes at his touch like my soul is letting out the most content sigh and I reach up to grip his shirt, hoping to hold onto the feeling forever.
A throat clearing interrupts us and I jerk back. Lucas licks his lips and slowly turns to look at the doorway as I follow his gaze. Willa flashes me a knowing, indulgent smile and a quirked brow.
“I was just going to go grab lunch if you don’t need anything else.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m good.”
“I bet you are,” she mutters under her breath and I shoot her a look as she winks and leaves the room. Lucas laughs and his breath brushes against my ear.
“She’s going to be impossible to rein in after she gets back.”
“Regretting your decision to kiss me at work?”
I turn and meet his gaze, smiling softly. “Never.”
“Good,” he answers, standing up and holding his hand out to me. “Ready for lunch?”
I nod and grab my purse from under the desk before grabbing his hand. He pulls me out of my chair and wraps his arm around my waist before slipping his hand into the back pocket of my jeans.