Page 29 of Quinton's Quest

I checked my phone to find a text from Gideon.

—Thank you for sending that. —

Then another text.

—Thank you for being a good man. —

Jesus.

Like that didn’t pierce my heart. I kept him away from our kids for nearly two years. How he hadn’t broken in that time, I couldn’t be certain. I was one-hundred percent sure I would have. Yet he’d soldiered on and fought to improve. He attributed much of that to Archer. Perhaps that was true—to an extent—but if he hadn’t wanted to make strides with his physical and emotional well-being, then no one could’ve made him do it.

Which made him a better man than me. Certainly more compassionate and forgiving.

—I’m sorry. —

I blinked. I had a million more things I wanted to say, but that’s all I could manage.

Then, before I could think better of it, I pulled up the contact I’d entered at the beginning of the week. The one I’d been asked to delete…but hadn’t.

—Are you awake? —

Ten seconds later, my phone rang.

Chapter Nine

Quinton

Only after I hitcalldid it occur to me this might not be the best game plan.

First, he was supposed to have lost my number.

The phone rang.

Yeah, but you didn’t lose his number…did you?

I hated when my subconscious was smarter than me. Of course I hadn’t deleted the phone number of the best lay I’d ever had.

The phone rang again.

The line connected.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, hello?”

“Heya. It’s Friday night, and I’m not working this weekend. How in the world did you think I might not be up?” I eyed my cooling shepherd’s pie.

“Well—” He grunted.

Was he rearranging himself?

“I’m in bed and about to fall asleep, so asking politely felt like the nicest thing to do.”

“As opposed to losing my number?”

He drew in an audible breath. “I was hoping that wouldn’t occur to you.”

“Well, you got that wrong.”

“But you knew who I was and didn’t block me. So you hadn’t lost my number either.”