Loving Quinn Novel by North Rose

Bonus Chapter: Max

(Max)

Weddings are meant to be happy occasions. I know my parents have been looking forward to my sister’s second wedding for the last few months. Annora deserves this happy ending. Quinn is a great guy, and he treats her like a queen. He makes her and Grace his priorities.

They need that after everything that **ole Kyle put them through. Well, he put Annie through

hell, but he was never like that with Grace. He hid his dark side from us all so well. It wasn’t until

the night he almost killed her that we finally learned what he was really like.

Quinn is nothing like Kyle.

Oh, I see the darkness in his eyes, but it is more like a shadow than anything else. A shadow of the

soldier he will always be. I know nothing about what he went through, but I respect his ability to keep it in check.

Today I watched my baby sister marry the love of her life.

I am happy for her, but being at her wedding has been a struggle for my m**al wellbeing. All I

kept thinking about was my own wedding to my soon-to-be ex-wife, Leita. The cheating w**.

who I thought was the love of my life

I remember the day I met her just like it was yesterday. It was my freshman year at college, and I was walking across campus to get to the cafeteria. Just like in one of those cheesy romance

movies, it started to rain, and she didn’t have an umbrella. I brought mine because I saw the sky

darken and figured it would rain soon.

So, like the gentleman my mother raised me to be, I offered Leita shelter from the rain as we both

rushed across campus. Her honey-brown eyes, caramel skin, and silky brown hair attracted me to

her like a moth to a flame. Her smile and happy nature made me want to get to know her more as

we spent the rest of our lunch hour together.

From that first meeting on, we were inseparable. I fell for her hard and fast. That should have

been my first warning, but like a fool, I ignored it. There were bumps in the road. We broke up for

a year, then got back together. We got married and were happy. The year apart should have been

my second warning, but just like the first one, I ignored it because she made me happy.

Our wedding was a simple ceremony. My mother pushed for more, but I put my foot down and pushed back. The guest list was small, just the way we wanted it. My bride was the most beautiful woman there.

I never imagined that we would get divorced, let alone the reason why. Other than during that year we were apart, she never once made me think that she was capable of cheating. Oh, what a fool I was!

“Hey, what are you doing over here all alone?” My brother Eric’s voice breaks me out of my funky thoughts. I turn to look at him as he walks down the last few stairs towards the beach.

“Nothing good,” I tell him as I hold up my half-empty champagne glass for him to see.

Eric lets out a sigh, then plops down next to me in the sand.

“I know where you went in your head, man. Stay out of there.”

I glance at him, then back at the water. His green eyes, so like our mother’s, are full of worry. I

don’t want my family to worry about me. Not today. This is Annie’s day.

“I am trying my best. It isn’t as easy to do as I want it to be.”

“You need something to distract you from everything that c**t did.” Eric’s voice is harsh as anger seeps into it.

I shake my head and sigh. My heart is screaming at me to defend Leita and to tell my brother not

to talk about her like that. My mind, however, is a different story. It knows better.

My heart is the traitorous o**n that still loves the woman who broke it.

Look, Max, you have a few options here tonight. You could sit out here and drown your broken

heart in booze.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” I interrupted him.

“You could go back up there to the party with me and let our family help you keep your mind on happier things.” He continued as if I hadn’t said anything.

“Or?”

His laughter surprises me, so I glance at him.

“Well, if I have to point out what we can all see, then I am pretty sure you are a blind man.”

What are you talking about?”

Eric points at something down the beach to my left. I turn to look and wish I hadn’t. I clench my jaw, then quickly look away.

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Bonus Chapter: Max

S**it.

I am not blind at all.

I am just not ready for what I know will happen if I do what my brain and body want me to do.

“That redhead has eyes only for you, man.”

Shawna. The one woman that I would want if she wasn’t off limits as my sister’s best friend and my heart wasn’t in pieces. Talk about bad timing and s**t luck.

“I know, but I can’t go there, Eric.

“Why the hell not? Shawna is f**ing hot. If it is because she is Annora’s best friend, then you should get over that.”

“Jumping into bed with her will not solve my problems.”

Eric sighs and stands up to dust the sand off his pants. “I know you still love your wife, but you filed for divorce. You are going to have to move on eventually.”

“Says the man who has never been married or even been in a serious relationship since college. That one jaded you. I would think you would understand where I am at right now.”

“I do, but I also know that staying where you are right now isn’t going to do you a d**n bit of good. Leita did what she did, and there is no going back to the way things were. I know it hurts. Been there, done that, and have the bumper sticker.”

“I don’t want things to go back to how they were. There is no going back to that woman. Not after finding out that the baby she let me believe was ours is another man’s baby.”

“Do you really think she knew?” Eric asks as he sits back down beside me.

I sigh and rub my hand down my face. Do I really think she was that duplicitous? Not really. Leita is many things, but conniving isn’t one of them.

“No, I don’t think she set out to get pregnant by another man. We had been trying and were excited to have a baby. There was something off with her behavior after we learned she was pregnant, but I put it off as first-time mom jitters.

“Let me ask you this, big brother. If it were just Jake that she cheated with and the baby were his,

would you try to make your marriage work?”

I thought about that after I first found out about the affair. Could I raise my ex-best friend’s baby

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Bonus Chapter: Max

with my cheating wife? Would I even want to make our marriage work? That, I think, is what has been my biggest problem.

The idea of raising another man’s child is not something I thought I would ever have to do. I respect men and women who take on stepchildren and raise them like their own. This situation is

different than that.

“Could you raise a child that is the product of your wife’s affair?” I asked Eric.

“I want to say yes, but I think that would all depend on how much I loved my wife and wanted things to work. That is what you need to figure out.”

To change the subject, I glance over to where I saw Quinn sit down a few minutes ago, then look back at my brother. “Why do you think he is out here alone?”

“I don’t know the man that well yet. According to our mother, he has a difficult life. Maybe he is just having a moment. Now, I am going to go back up to the party and dance with our sister

before I leave.”

Eric stands up again and dusts his pants off.

“What should I do, Eric?”

“It is your life, Max. I will be there for you if you need to talk, but I can’t make this choice for

you.”

“What would you do?”

When I get no reply, I just keep watching the water. Eventually, I sense that I am alone. I let out a sigh as I contemplated my life choices. How the f**k did I get here? This was not how things were

supposed to happen.

My construction business has taken off better than I dreamed it would. The designs for our dream home were being finalized. The land I wanted to purchase for us to build it on was finally on the market. Everything in our lives was falling into place.

Then BOOM.

All it took was one afternoon to blow my life to pieces. I know it started long before that day, but that was it for me. Walking and finding my wife f**king my best friend was one of the most. painful moments of my life. Finding out the baby wasn’t mine was the second.

That was a hard blow to my heart.

A baby was something we had both wanted for so long.

Hearing laughter from down the beach to my left, I turn my head to look at what is going on. Shawna and Grace are dancing around in the surf. Shawna’s dress is held up around her waist in one hand while she dances.

The flash of the pale skin on her legs makes things in my stomach tighten. There has always been something about my sister’s best friend that appeals to me. I was a happily married man, or so I keep telling myself, so I push the attraction aside.

Eric’s words from earlier come back to me. If only he knew that I had kissed her already. Well, it was slightly more than just a kiss. We made out like a couple of **y teenagers.

Yes, I was very drunk, but I remember that night very clearly. I will never forget the way she melted against me. Her lips were just as soft as I imagined. Her hair was like a fiery halo around her face in the faint light of the room. She tasted like honey, and I wanted to savor it.

Her body was so soft yet firm in all the right places. Soft, supple breasts that filled my hands just right. Everything about her teased my senses until I wanted more of her. I was disappointed when she pulled away.

However, it was the look of shame on her face as she grabbed her things and left that made me realize how far we had gone. One kiss turned into so much more than it should have. It was like she drugged me.

I know it wasn’t the tequila that encouraged me to kiss her. It was all Shawna. That night made me realize that there was something there for both of us, and it scared the hell out of me. Considering where my life was at that point, it was not a good idea to get involved with anyone.

No matter how tempting the idea was and still is, I can’t go there.

I have been avoiding being alone with her since that night. Lucky for me, she seems to have decided the same thing. Unluckily for me, she is my sister’s best friend, so I can only do that for so long before we find ourselves in the same place with nowhere to run.

I’m not sure I want to run this time.

My marriage is over. There is no changing that fact. Maybe I should give these feelings I have for Shawna a chance? It is more than attraction to her body that I feel. She is kind, intelligent, great with children, and has a good career.

We have never really spent a lot of time together in the past, not alone at least. It was always in a group setting with my family on holidays. Shawna is a genuinely caring woman. I want to know more about her.

I look away from her and focus on the water again. When I get back to California, I will think about asking her out for coffee or something casual like that. Something that makes it not feel like a date. If that goes well, then maybe an actual date would be in order.

F***k I haven’t taken anyone out on a date, other than my wife, since college. I dated a few girls in high school, but once I met Leita, there were no other girls. Just her.

“Hey, Max.” Shawn’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

I whip my head towards the sound of her voice, only to be shocked at how close she is. Grace is nowhere to be seen. I look to my right to see if Quinn is still on the beach, but he is gone too. We are alone.

“What happened? Where did Grace go?”

“She went to snag another piece of cake.”

“Ah,” I say, looking away.

“Can we talk?”

I pat the sand next to me for her to join me. When she doesn’t sit right away, I glance over my shoulder. I can see the hesitation to get sand on her dress. I take my suit jacket off and lay it over the sand. The smile she gives me makes my heart flutter in a dangerous way.

“Thank you,” she says as she sits down.

“What do you want to talk about?” Even though I already have an idea of what she wants to say, I have to ask anyway.

I watch her cheeks turn a light pink as she looks down at her lap. The Shawna I know isn’t shy at all, so this is surprising. She is normally very bold, from what I remember. I think I like this shy

side of her.

“I wanted to apologize for kissing you while you were drunk that night. You are a married man, and I knew it was wrong. I don’t know what came over me.”

I do.

“There is no need to apologize, Shawna. I may have been drunk, but I remember all of it. I kissed

you too. In fact, we did a little more than kissing.”

Her eyes widen in shock, and her lips form a small o’ as what I said sinks in.

“I am sorry that I let it go that far, though. You have a wife, and I don’t mess with married men.”

“What about men who are in the process of a divorce?”