Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Nothing’s wrong.” His heavy sigh said the exact opposite.
“Are you mad because Mom was frustrated with not knowing about Ramona’s pregnancy? Because I’m not mad, Quinn. I get why you didn’t tell. You have doctor ethics. Mom will get over her issue. I’ll talk to her myself.”
“Thanks. And I’m not mad. It’s more that she was right.” Quinn’s tone was so dejected that I had to reach across the table and touch his hand.
However, I was also a little confused. “About wanting to know?”
“No, about you burning yourself out and making yourself sick with too many long hours.”
Ah. I should have known that he’d heard that part of our conversation too. Getting mad at him for listening in wasn’t going to solve anything, but some of my irritation crept into my tone. “I can handle it.”
“Your body says otherwise.” And now I’d apparently earned the Dr. Strauss tone. Great.
“It’s because I screwed up the dosing of the prevention med.” It had been the week from hell, and it was no wonder that I’d slacked on getting my medication refills and taking things on time. “Won’t happen again.”
“You can’t promise that. And maybe the forgetting happened because you were stressed? Also, even the best prevention isn’t going to be able to counter things like not enough sleep.” He had more of the reasonable doctor tone, but his hint of bitterness on the word sleep gave him away.
“Don’t take Mom’s late-night comment personally. Please.” I took his hand again. The last thing I wanted was him blaming himself for my headache. “Mom’s like you, always on me to take better care of myself. She wasn’t suggesting we not date. I have enough time for you too.”
“I don’t want to be another item on your to-do list.” Quinn played with my fingers as he looked at the tabletop rather than my face.
“You’re not.” I tipped his chin up with my other hand so he’d see I was serious. “You’re my favorite item on the list.”
“That’s sweet. But the list is too long, and it’s about to get even longer. And I don’t want to be the thing that pushes other more important things off the list.”
I dropped his hand. “So you’re ending things because I might be getting busier?”
“It’s almost Fall.” Quinn glanced back at my fridge, at the calendar there and Teddy’s school pics. “You said yourself—”
“You know I haven’t been thinking like that for weeks now.” I cut him off because he was being ridiculous. Not exactly unexpected, but definitely unwarranted. “Don’t put a time limit on this just because you’re worried.”
“It’s not worry as much as being practical.”
“And noble, letting me go so I have more time for my family and my health.” Now I was the one with bitterness in my voice, and I pushed away from the table, unable to keep pretending this was an average breakfast conversation. I stalked to the window.
“Your health is important.” Quinn followed, placing a hand on my shoulder. “It matters to me.”
“Yeah, well, you matter to me too.” I turned to face him, pulling him closer to me. “And I don’t care if it’s practical or if we have to squeeze time in, I want to keep seeing you.”
“I want that too, so damn much, but your health is more important than you finding time for me and some kinky games.” He held me tighter as if he were trying to store up the contact.
“Being your Daddy isn’t a game. Not for me.” I released him from the embrace because having him that close yet so far away was starting to hurt too much.
“That’s not what I meant.” Quinn drew his shoulders up, posture rigid. “More that this isn’t the time to put fooling around first.”
“Quit telling me that you know what I need. If we are not a priority for you, then say that.”
“I want you healthy and happy as my top priority. You’re right. I don’t know what you need.” His face crumbled, and for a second, it seemed like tears were inevitable, but then his expression buttoned up tight. “I don’t have the answers. All I know is that something has to give, same as your mom said.”
“And all I know is that your logic is crap.” I glared at him. Damn him for forcing this issue. He might have a point about me getting busier, but any sort of breaking up wasn’t the answer. No way. “You’re scared that I’m going to dump you at some unspecified future point because I might, emphasis on might, be too busy for a relationship. But you’re afraid that you might care too much by then, so you’re going to end it now rather than get hurt like you did before.”
“That’s not fair.” Quinn met me hard stare for hard stare.
“But it is part of it,” I insisted.