Love, Diamonds, and Spades (15 page)

Right. He’d planned to introduce Quinn and Cooper to his folks then.

“No, sorry, mom. Something came up. She won’t be able to make it.”

A measured pause, then. “Everything okay?”

He’d never been one to talk to his folks, or anyone really, about his relationship problems. Hell, that’s why no one knew the reason why he and Lacey never worked out.

“Rylan, I can hear you hurting over the phone.” Her voice quieted, but still resonated in that mom-tone. “I wasn’t able to help you work through whatever happened with Lacey. And it just about killed me. Talk to me, sweetheart. Maybe I can help.”

Startled, he looked at his phone, almost picturing his mom with her Carol Brady hair. Worrying about him. He hadn’t realized. “I never meant to keep you shut out. Lacey and I were…complicated.”

“Judging by the fall-out, I gathered that. Is this the same situation with Quinn?”

No. Quinn was the exact opposite of Lacey. What she was doing, and why she was doing it…he understood. Loved her even more for it, actually. “Remember how I told you her son Cooper has asthma? Well, it turns out, he has to get this entire airway reconstruction surgery on account of scarring from all the surgeries he’d had when he was first born.”

“Oh, Rylan. That poor woman.”

“I know. She’s taking it hard. She’s worried about Cooper and money, and she’s trying to be so strong. If only she’d let me help.” Frustration ate away at him like acid. “She broke things off tonight.”

“Rylan, honey. You need to give it time.”

“I don’t think time is going to fix this one, Mom. You can’t even begin to imagine what she’s already gone through, and what she’s preparing herself to go through. Alone. She doesn’t want to drag me into it.” A bitter laugh burst out of his chest. “She doesn’t want me to give up the museum project for her, and she’d rather I be out dating and having fun instead of holding her hand through this.”

He dropped his head into his hands. “Is dad there? Do you think you could put him on speaker?”

“Sure, just a sec.”

“Hey son. I’m sorry about Quinn and Cooper. I wish there were something we could do.” His father, always quick with the good advice, didn’t have more than that to offer.

“Dad, when Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, if that had happened when you two first started dating, knowing what you know now about how hard the battle was going to be, do you think you guys would’ve survived it?”

His dad was silent for quite a bit, before he answered, “You know, I’d like to think so. But honestly, I don’t know. Maybe not.”

Great.

“Honey, what your Dad means is that we know a lot of survivors who ended up having a lot of problems in their marriages, some even got divorced. It’s a tough thing for a couple to go through. While your Dad and I love each other more than anything, the intensity, heartache, and scares of what we went through would’ve probably been too much for a new relationship.”

Rylan released a dejected sigh. “So you don’t think Quinn and I could handle this. That’s what you’re saying.”

“Actually…I think you could.”

“So do I, son,” added his dad. “You’re a way different man than I was when I first met your mother. And Quinn…she sounds like she’s already gone through ten times more than what your mother had at the time. Plus, we’ve known for weeks now that you’re in love with this woman, am I right?”

More in love than he’d ever thought possible. “Yeah. I love her.”

“Then you two might have a shot.”

If only he could buy miracles with hopes and wishes. “Mom? Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Sure, honey. Anything.”

“If back then, you’d known what you know now, would you have tried to do what Quinn is doing? Would you have tried to push Dad out of your life?”

“Honestly, yes,” she replied softly. “I would do exactly what Quinn is doing now…if I loved him enough to do it. I would’ve tried.”

He sat and processed that last statement long after he hung up with his parents.

Quinn loved him, he was almost certain. But he couldn’t possibly know how much was ‘enough.’

By the next morning, he realized, it didn’t matter.

He loved her and Cooper more than ‘enough.’

* * * * *

ON SUNDAY MORNING
, Quinn woke up to the sound of a loud scuffling shuffle in her back yard. She froze and tried to adjust her eyes to the early morning light. The sound came through again loud and clear so she reached under her bed for the bat Luke had bought her back in college, and made her way over to the back door.

She thrust it open and jumped out. “The cops are on their way,
assho
—” She lowered the bat. “
Rylan?
What are you doing here at his hour?”

Rylan eyed her and then her bat. “Ten to one, you didn’t actually call the cops before running your Xena Warrior Princess out here. Bat blazing.”

She scowled. “No, I didn’t.”

“Sounded convincing though. And the pink panties to distract him while you bopped him on the head was particularly ingenious.”

Quinn flushed and pulled her shirt down a bit.

“That’s my shirt, by the way.”

“You gave it to me!”

“That’s because you tricked me into putting my favorite shirts into that evil contraption you call a clothes dryer.”

She bit her lip to keep from chuckling. Really, the man did have some awful luck with laundry appliances.

“Ah ha, you admit it.” He picked up a big shovel and started digging into the ground alongside her house.

“What are you doing?”
And why are you still here?
It hurt her eyes to look at him, he was so beautiful. She’d been preparing herself to not see him for a while. Not that her heart had listened. Every night since she’d seen him last, she’d dreamt of him. Missed him. Loved him beyond belief.

Only to find him here this morning. Doing… “Rylan, seriously, what
are
you doing here?”

“You made it clear we can’t date. But we’re still friends, aren’t we? We were getting there, at least, before we started dating. So I’m here now as your friend. I get that you don’t want to date me and burden my life. Don’t agree with it one bit, but I understand. I know you have more than enough things to worry about right now, and relationship issues is the last thing you need. That’s not why I’m here. I’m just…offering to be a friend. You can’t fault a friend from wanting to be there for you.”

God, when would he realize he was much too good for her? “Rylan, you don’t have to do that.”

“I’m afraid it’s my right as your friend, sugar. So if you’ll excuse me, I have some planting to do—I researched a bunch of plants that are supposed to be good for asthma and overall respiratory health. Then I have to go meet Lia’s brothers for a new knob and deadbolt for your door—you don’t mind if I keep a copy of the key, right? It’ll help on those nights that I’m coming over to cook you dinner to take to the hospital.”

Her hand flew up to her mouth and for a second there, she almost,
almost
felt herself start to cry.

But for once, not in anger or sadness or even fear.

She just loved the man so damn much. “Rylan—”

He dropped his shovel and cupped her cheek. “You’re not talking me out of this. But I will respect your wishes if you don’t want me to be around Cooper. You’re his mom and I know you’re only trying to protect him. If you think my being here, not as your boyfriend anymore, will confuse him or make him sad, just say the word.”

She shook her head. “No. Actually, Cooper already misses you.”
Like I do.
“He’ll love it if you still came by to visit him.”

“Not just him, sweetheart. I’m here for you, too. I’ll force-feed you take-out when you’re too tired to eat, I’ll crack my amazingly funny jokes when you’re angry at the universe, and if you’ll let me, I’ll hold your hand when you’re scared. My dad did that for me and my mom when my brother had slipped into a coma after a skateboarding accident. It helped. If for no other reason than to know that the person holding my hand loved the person I was worried about just as much as I did.”

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a bunch of papers. “You’re not alone in this, Quinn. And it’s not just me being stubborn about it, too.”

She reached over and flipped through about a dozen flyers for concerts, craft fairs, and other fundraisers.

All for Cooper.

“Rylan, you shouldn’t have done this. We don’t need to be burdening—”

“I didn’t do this. Well, the concerts, yes. But the rest, that’s all the town’s doing.” He gave her a half shrug. “You moved to a nosy, nosy little town, sweetie. Cooper told his friends at school that he was going to be having surgery, and those kids told their parents, who then called Cooper’s teacher—who neither confirmed nor denied the info—and after deciding that was good enough recon for them, those parents contacted pretty much everyone in town.”

Quinn hung her head down and couldn’t help but laugh.

Lordy, this town…

“Of course,
after
half the things were already planned, someone came forward with true confirmation…via folks overhearing you yelling at your insurance company over the phone for not covering the surgery over some technicality.”

That mild rush of panic she’d gotten when she’d first heard the news hit her in the pit of her stomach again, and she swallowed back the bile as she explained bitterly, “They disagree with the treatment plan. They’re saying it’s too radical a procedure in Cooper’s case. They say that we have to first try a few other surgeries and exhaust all these other ridiculous avenues. All of which could take months that Cooper simply doesn’t have. They said that if we do
all
those other surgeries first, and none of them work,
then
they’ll cover the reconstructive surgery. But we just don’t have that kind of time to wait.”

“Heartless pricks,” snarled Rylan. “Have you tried talking to Connor? Maybe get some legal help from his firm?”

“No. Again, we don’t have that kind of time. So we’re just going to go ahead with the procedure and pay out of pocket.”

Rylan tapped on the flyers. “Well, now you have a little help with that.”

He walked back over to his shovel and wheelbarrow of plants. “Rylan?”

“Hmmm?”

“Thank you. For this. All of this. For being my friend. For helping. And…for coming back.”

“You can always count on me for all of the above, sugar. I’m not going anywhere.”

Yeah. She was starting to see that.

* * * * *

TWO WEEKS LATER
, Quinn was quickly getting in some spoonfuls of the chili that Rylan had made as she watched him toss the ball around with Cooper in the back yard.

She still couldn’t believe that in the last week alone, he’d gone and done every single one of the very chores his poker games were famous for.

Washed her dog? Check. Dishes, car wash, shopping—with Penny
and
the kids no less. Check, check, and check. Then the big one—a load of laundry. From start to finish,
without
her supervision.

She’d had no words.

They were clean, yes. All wearable? Not so much.

He
did
manage to get a bunch of her blouses so crispy that she’d probably never have to iron them again for work. A scientifically fascinating feat she was still trying to figure out.

God, he was just the most incredible man. And a great friend, too. Lately, she found they could spend hours talking about anything and everything. Even business. Since she and Luke were starting to go through some possible financial hardships with the shop, for the past week, Rylan had actually been a great sounding board for her to bounce ideas off of, something she’d never really had before. Luke, bless his heart, had great ideas for sure, but the man couldn’t run a business to save his life.

Rylan, however, had a lot of experience from starting up his own landscaping business, and managing his band. They’d since spent a lot of time just talking business, which would lead to them discussing life in general into the wee hours of the night.

She missed him.

Even now, as she watched him playing with Cooper outside, she found she didn’t just miss kissing him and seeing that brain-scrambling body of his up close—though, she most definitely did—she missed just being with him. One day, after a particularly rough few days almost two weeks ago, Rylan had arranged for Quinn to have that spa day he’d mentioned once. Basically, he’d tricked her out of the house and pushed her out of the car at the doorstep of the spa where three people with mystically zen voices had come forward to whisk her into Shangri-la. It had been the single most relaxing day of her life. But, throughout the whole royal treatment, the entire time she’d been getting massaged and pampered to within an inch of becoming comatose with tranquility, all she’d been able to think about was how Rylan and Coop were home making mini homemade pizzas and watching a movie.