Page 33 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)

QUINN

I sneaked out the back door of the church just to get away from Levi.

Between waiting for Jeff and Levi being Levi, I worried I was going to lose my mind.

With the wedding under two hours away, Jeff still hadn’t shown up.

I’d only created a million scenarios in my head, like him getting stranded with a flat tire or being hurt in a hospital somewhere.

Abduction by aliens had even made the list. None of those excuses seemed right to me.

There was definitely something more to this.

Once outside, I pulled my phone from my pocket, meaning to call him directly and ask what was going on. But then the phone buzzed in my hand and Jeff’s name appeared on the screen.

Just in the nick of time, as my dad liked to say.

I swiped up to answer the call and immediately said, “Jeff, where the fuck are you?”

At first, I received no answer, only heavy breathing on the other end.

“Jeff? Jeff, is everything all right?”

“Hey, I’m glad I caught you.”

“Yeah, you caught me. You’re not sick or about to die, are you?”

The breathing sounds returned, which raised an immediate red flag.

“Listen, we need to talk,” he said.

“Oh, Jesus.”

“I wanted to talk to you about this earlier, but there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up.”

“So you picked the worst possible time?”

“I know it’s really bad timing?—”

“You’re damn right it’s bad timing. The wedding’s going to start in ninety minutes and I’m standing here with my thumb up my ass thanks to you.”

“Give me a chance to explain, would you?”

“First and foremost, I need to know whether you’re coming to this wedding or not. So which is it?”

He paused again before saying, “I’m not going to be there.”

You little son of a bitch, I thought. And what excuse can you possibly throw at me for pulling this shit?

No one was near me at that moment, but I still felt embarrassed.

In fact, I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was about to show up to see my humiliation.

They’d still find out eventually. After all, everyone would see that I’d been stood up the moment they spotted an empty seat beside me at the head table.

And of course I’d told everyone about Jeff, how great he was, and how I foresaw a terrific future with him.

Now I’d have to tell them the truth—that he was a flake. You know, just like Levi Dunn had called him.

Jesus Christ.

I hated to admit for even a moment that my stepbrother-to-be could have a point about anything. What else had he been right about?

“Why aren’t you coming to the wedding?” I asked. “You can at least tell me the reason, and it’d better be good.”

“Listen, I just don’t think things are working out between us.”

“Not working out? Jeff, I thought things were going great between us. I thought we had a real future together.”

“I did, too. And then…”

And then we had sex. I wasn’t what he thought I’d be.

It must’ve been because of that, but I wouldn’t put words in his mouth.

Not that I’d make it easy for him. I still wanted to force him to explain himself, make him squirm and feel uncomfortable.

In other words, I wanted to put him through the same hell he’d subjected me to all day by forcing me to wait for him.

“I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I think the reason is pretty obvious.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought we’d make a great couple. We do make a great couple. You know, when you aren’t pulling something like this on me.”

“Don’t be like that, Quinn. Please. This isn’t easy for me either, you know.”

Then how the fuck do you think it feels for me? I wanted to ask. Leaves me in the lurch, that’s what .

I felt like nothing on the planet would make him realize that his timing couldn’t have been worse.

“Okay, so you’re making this my fault then?” I asked.

“It’s not your fault, Quinn. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just one of those things.”

I huffed, which drew silence from Jeff. He had no solid answers, not that I expected any. Yeah, I wasn’t making this easy for him, and I saw no harm in giving him exactly what he deserved.

“I’m really not getting what you’re saying,” I said. “Maybe I need it spelled out for me.”

“When we first started dating, Quinn, I thought you were a great guy. I still do. You’ve got it all. You’re cute, you’re smart, you’re funny, you’ve got a lot going for you. You’re everything I could ever want in a guy.”

“But?”

“But it’s like you’re emotionally unavailable most of the time.”

“You’re losing me again.”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try.”

“It’s like you’ve been checked out—not just mentally, but emotionally, too. I can’t be with someone like that.”

“So you’re saying I’m emotionally unavailable? Is that it?”

“Yes and no. I’m not saying it’s the normal kind of emotionally unavailable. It’s kind of a special case.”

Now I felt silly for letting Jeff explain this. He’d practically turned into a psychologist, which I totally didn’t need at the moment.

“I’m sorry if I don’t see it the same way,” I said.

“It’s pretty clear to me that you’re in love. Problem is, you’re in love with someone who isn’t me.”

My hand clenched the phone in a death grip.

“I’m in love with someone else?” I asked. “But I stayed with you all this time!”

“Because you wouldn’t admit you were in love.”

“Then why don’t you go ahead and tell me who I’m in love with?”

“Levi Dunn.”

“Oh, come on. You’re being ridiculous now.”

“No, I’m not. I know he’s going to be your stepbrother in another hour or two, but it doesn’t matter. I noticed the look on your face the first time he crashed our coffee date at Spot Coffee. At first, I tried not to think too much about it. I thought you really didn’t want him there.”

“Because I didn’t!”

“You didn’t want him there because you couldn’t handle your feelings. Anyway, I saw something else. It was in your eyes, really. I don’t know exactly what to call it. It was just something . I saw it again the second time, too. I couldn’t just ignore it.”

I found myself breathing heavier, wanting to cut him off and denounce his story as bullshit.

Did I really want to listen to this insanity?

Problem was, Jeff sounded perfectly rational when speaking, like he truly believed it.

I could continue to deny it, but he wouldn’t believe me no matter what I tried.

“I know something was up when we tried screwing around at my house,” he said.

“I thought you were being understanding about that.”

“I was. I’m not a prick, you know. But I couldn’t help feeling like you had something else going on. Internal conflict, I mean. And then, when we finally did screw around at your house, it pretty much confirmed everything I believed.”

“Because Levi could’ve walked in on us?”

“Because I think you wanted Levi to walk in. Maybe you don’t see it that way, but it seemed pretty clear to me.”

I couldn’t deny that.

“Once that happened,” he said, “I knew this wasn’t going to work out. The problem was finding the right time and place to tell you.”

Well, you sure as shit found it , I thought, but that sounded too petty to say out loud.

“I guess,” I said, “if you really feel that way about it.”

“I do. I know I’ll find love one day, and that’s why I don’t mind stepping out of the picture. Think I’m the asshole of this story if you want to, but I won’t stand in the way of two people who are pretty obviously in love with each other.”

I drew a deep breath and exhaled. Levi could ruin everything even when he wasn’t trying to, and that drove me nuttier than anything else about this.

I hated what Jeff was telling me, but I couldn’t argue with him. He’d somehow won this argument with minimal effort.

I felt like my only hope was to just to exit the conversation as quickly as possible.

“We can still be friends,” he said. “Just not boyfriends.”

“I’m not sure I want to be either at this point.”

And I ended the call. Yeah, I wish I’d been more mature than that, but I couldn’t help my overwhelming disappointment. I had to do something that felt good.

When I headed back into the church, all I could think about was Levi and everything Jeff had said about us.

He couldn’t be right about that stuff. He just couldn’t…but I couldn’t strike the possibility from my mind.