Quinn (The Waite Family) (17 page)

“Millie, I—”

“Shame on you, Andrew Miller. Shame, shame.
If your mother was here she’d…she’d beat you with a wet noodle.
I have never…what did you…damn it.”
She tossed the knife and fork on the plate and stood.
“What did you expect that poor girl to do?
Just let you tell her what she was to do?
Shame on you.”

He wasn’t sure if he should answer and decided that maybe he should try and defend himself just a little.
“She wasn’t going to tell me about the bab—”

“And when did you expect her to tell you? While you was in Paris?
Or maybe while she was lying flat on the floor?”
He had a moment to wonder how she had so much information, but she answered that too.
“My sister is a nurse there and she told me that the poor little thing just found out herself. That you even told her yourself she was having your child.”

“Millie, I was upset. I’d just had to hit her brother for shaki—”

“Oh yeah, you’re quick to jump to her defense when someone else hurts her, but not when you open that trap of yours to hurt her.”
She was pacing now, striding back and forth in front of him like she was on a mission.
“And now she’s run away from you.
Imagine that!
What are you going to do about this, I ask you?
How are you going to make it so that I will hold that precious babe?”

Drew was getting madder by the minute. Yes, he’d known this woman all his life and she’d paddled his butt on more than one occasion when he’d stayed with his grandparents, but this was too far. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. She came on to me, not me to her.
She got pregnant because she was not willing to tell me if it was safe.
A man can only do so much when a woman is all over him.”

She stopped pacing and stared at him.
He could see the disappointment in her eyes and a bit of shock.
When she turned and walked away he started to stand to go after her, but she stopped suddenly and turned back.

“You were taught to keep it in your pants if you don’t have protection, were you not?”

“Yes, ma’am.”
If the subject matter wasn’t so adult, he’d swear he’d just stolen a cookie from the jar.

“And were you not also taught that you are just as responsible for what your body does to someone else as the person you are doing it to?” she asked him softly.

“Yes, ma’am.” He’d been taught that one from her when he’d hit Billy Wade down the street.
That hadn’t hurt as bad as this dressing down did.

“And were you also taught that men and women were equal in all things?
Including sex, fighting, and even jobs?”

“Yes, ma’am, I was.”

She nodded at him.
“Then why are you blaming only her for your child being in her belly?”

The door closing behind her sounded like she’d slammed it in the quiet of the room.
He turned to his grandda when he heard him clapping.
He walked over, sat across from Drew, and simply stared for a few minutes.
When he did speak Drew wanted to go find a corner and stand in it.

“Millie has loved you all your life and your grandma used to say she only stayed with us all these years to get to be around you.” Grandda sat back in the chair.
“You hurt her, son.
And that girl.
What do you plan to do about either woman?”

He honestly didn’t know.
He knew that he had to find Quinn or he’d never be able to fix it with her
,
and without fixing it with Quinn he couldn’t fix it with Millie.
He’d screwed up, he knew that. And to add more onto it, he’d added insult to injury by hurting her again when he’d seen her in the hospital.

“I don’t know.
I…I screwed up.
I don’t know how to fix it.
Grandda, what do I do? I want to be a part of their lives.
I need to be a part.”

Grandda nodded.
“Do you love her?”

Drew didn’t love her.
He liked her well enough. He didn’t even mind her all that much when she was at her most irritating, but love her?
No, Drew didn’t love her.
He didn’t think.

“I don’t know.
I know I should say that I do. That I slept with her because she meant the world to me, but love her?
No, Grandda, I don’t love her.
I’m not even sure that most of the time I even like her.”

Grandda nodded.
“That’s what I thought.
Then, son, you only have one choice.
Leave her alone.
Support her financially if she needs it, give her the best care you can provide her, but don’t marry her.
It would be a monumental mistake on both your parts.”

Drew looked at his grandda, confused.
“Wait.
You’re telling me not to marry the woman I got pregnant?
You’re telling me to basically only be there when she needs me and nothing more?”

“That’s right.
I’m not saying stay out of the child’s life. It’s not his fault that you don’t love her. I’m just saying that you don’t need to compound your…both your mistakes by marrying.
Especially if you don’t think you love each other.”
Grandda stood up. “Well, I have a date.
You don’t stay up too late now.
I’ll see you in the morning.”

Drew sat on the couch and stared at nothing.
He was having some difficulty trying to wrap his head around the advice that his grandda had just given him.
Don’t marry her.
His grandda was actually telling him not to marry her.

Quinn took the entire weekend to get her head together. On Sunday night she called her sister Lilliane and talked to her for over an hour.
Quinn never mentioned the fight she’d had with Cain or Drew; she didn’t mention the baby either.
She and Lilliane talked about her new class full of kindergarteners and they talked about visiting.

“You should see it down here. The weather is wonderful and the trees are turning.
I love it.
I don’t think I have had a more wonderful group of kids either.
Come down for a while. It’ll be fun.”

Lilliane Iris, or Lilly to her friends and family, lived in Nashville, Tennessee.
She had been a kindergarten teacher since she’d been fresh out of college and had done nothing else.
She’d fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher.
Quinn couldn’t be happier for her.

“I’ll let you know in a few days.
Right now I need to get me a job and I want to move out on my own for a while. Jazzie is great, but…”

“But she can be a bit hard on the nerves.
Yeah, been there, done that.” Lilly laughed.
“All right, let me know. I have a few days sick time coming to me and if you let me know I can take a long weekend with you.”

On Monday morning Quinn was ready to face the lion. She called the office to make an appointment with Drew.
His secretary answered like she was completely out of her element.

“Oh Miss Quinn, this place is falling apart. Falling apart, I tell you.
I’ve never seen someone…why, if he snaps at me once more, I’m quitting.
I will. I don’t need this kind of crap.”

“Don’t quit.
Please don’t.
Just take a deep breath and let it out slowly.”
Like she could give advice on dealing with Drew, she thought.
“Here’s what I want you to do. Type up your resignation and the next time he snaps lay it on his desk and then take a long lunch.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t do that. I need this job. I was only…he isn’t so bad.
I’ll just set you up with an appointment.”

“Do you want him to keep snapping at you?
If you don’t then you’d better take a stand.
Give your notice and then if that doesn’t work I’ll talk to Alyssa for you and we’ll get you transferred to another department.
You don’t have to take that from him.”

“You’ll stand behind me? Well, he has been a bear.
I’ll do it.
Yes, I will.”
Quinn could hear the confidence returning to Caroline’s voice over the keys clicking.
“I have an opening today at one-fifteen. Can you do that one?”

Quinn wanted to get this over with, but did she want to that quickly?
Sheesh!
“Yes.
Yes, that’ll be fine.
Thank you, Caroline.”

“No, Miss Quinn, thank you.
Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Yes, Quinn thought, make the last week go away.
“No…
Yes. Can you transfer me to Alyssa’s office, please? I need to make an appointment with her too.”

A few seconds of music and Alyssa answered the phone. Quinn waited after she said hello, hoping that she would think the phone went dead or the connection was lost.
She should have known better with Alyssa.

“I can hear you breathing. If you hang up I’ll never forgive you.
I…Quinn, please come home. I miss you.”
Then the richest woman in the world, one who ran several corporations at once, burst into tears.
“Please come in and talk to me.
I want to see you, make sure…please?”

Quinn was crying too now.
“Damn it, I said I wanted to make an appointment with you, not make you cry.
Alyssa, I needed to get away. I had to, you understand?
He was…Drew was…and Cain, he…oh, Alyssa.”

Both of them were sobbing by now and Quinn promised she’d come in now and see her before she saw Drew.
That was going to be hard enough without having swollen eyes, but she’d go. She was pulling into the office about an hour later, just after eight-thirty.

When she came into the building, she was waved by. She didn’t stop to tell them she didn’t work there anymore, she was too upset, and besides, new people coming in had to have someone come and get them and she just wanted to go up. When she knocked on Alyssa’s door she went in and was immediately engulfed into Cain’s arms.

“Shut up and let me hold you,” he said when she started to struggle. “I’m so sorry. So very sorry, Quinn. I shouldn’t have…I was a prick and an ass and I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave like that again. I couldn’t find you and…well, don’t do it again, okay?”

“Cain, I can’t breathe.” He released her immediately.
“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have left like that, but it was too much.”

He hugged her again, only this time it was much gentler.
She went around the desk and hugged Alyssa. She would never have considered herself a hugger, but it felt good.
Very good.
She sat in the chair and held her brother’s hand.

“Now what?” he asked her.
“You notice I’m not yelling and not telling you what to do.
Alyssa pointed out the error of my ways.
I need to be supportive and happy for you if you’re happy.
Are you? Happy, I mean?”