He didn’t say anything, but his face said everything. His lips were pursed, brows furrowed.
After a long minute of silence, he sighed. “Can we talk about it once we get to the house and get everything unpacked?”
“Okay,” I said.
The rest of the ride was quiet. I knew that for both of us it was a taxing day. We took down Ravik, not just took him down—I killed him. He may have hated him, but he was still his uncle.
Quinn lived off of 331, closer to Pigeon Forge. We turned onto a dirt road and very shortly pulled into a driveway. It was a small two-bedroom brick ranch house. Within a couple of minutes, Hyder pulled in behind us. Quinn got out and ran to the other side to open my door. The times I opened the door and got out before him, he gave me a look. He didn’t say anything, but I knew it bothered him. He wanted me to wait for him, wanting to be a gentleman. I resigned myself to letting him. It made him happy.
I stepped out of the car. He tilted his head at me and gave me a slight smile. I pressed my lips together, curving them at the edges.
“Let’s do a tour, it’s small, but… I like it,” he said.
“Alright,” I said.
I knew he didn’t want me to leave, but he also knew I needed to. I didn’t want to leave him either. I wanted to stay right with him. I wanted to sleep in his arms every night as I had the last few weeks. I wanted him to devour me as he did earlier.
We walked up a couple of concrete stairs onto a small concrete porch that had a metal fence wrapped around it. We walked into the living room. There was an archway where a dining room sat.
“This is the living room. It’s not much, but there’s furniture, bookshelves, and a TV. All of our favorite things,” he said.
“You do enjoy reading,” I said, nodding toward the three bookshelves that lined the one wall.
He shrugged. “Some of it’s Callie’s, too.”
“Uh-huh, sure,” I teased.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the dining room.
“The dining and kitchen are really just one area, but here it is. It’s a bit bigger than the cabin,” he said.
He turned around and headed down the hall, pulling me along.
He opened the first door on the right.
“And this is the laundry room,” he said, motioning into the room.
Then, he took a step to the left of the hallway and opened the door.
“This is the very small guest bathroom,” he said.
“It is indeed,” I replied.
There was a sink and a toilet.
“Don’t worry, whoever built this house was thinking right.” He walked to the next door on the left and opened it.
“This is Callie’s domain. She has her own bathroom in there. We do not enter without permission,” he said.
I raised my right eyebrow at him, let go of his hand, and walked into the room.
“Oh… yeah, I’m not doing that,” he said, standing in the doorway.
I walked in, taking everything in. The bed sat in the middle, dark blue bedding with red roses. On the side, in front of the window, there was a vanity.
“She’s coming,” he muttered.
“And? You're a man…”