Kiss My Boots (Coming Home #2)

“It’s time you let someone else fight for us, honey.”

She speaks at the same time we turn into my driveway. I park next to an unfamiliar sedan waiting there and look out my window toward the house when I see the car is empty. I might not recognize that car, but I can’t say the same of the woman sitting on my porch. What are the odds that in the hour we’ve been gone that she would show up? I guess it’s a blessing and a curse that I’ve had time to prepare us both for this shit.

“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.” I see her stand, adjusting her sunglasses. “You have got to be fuckin’ jokin’!” I shout. I know she can’t see into my truck because of the dark-tinted windows, but that doesn’t stop her from smiling and waving at me like some fucking beauty queen.

“I take it you know her?” Quinn asks in a venomous tone. I crank my head to look at her, expecting that anger to be directed toward me, but she’s not even paying me a lick of attention. She’s staring straight at the porch, shooting daggers with her eyes at the very unwelcome visitor.

I look back over to see Ella’s frantically happy waves start to slow down when I don’t open my truck door immediately, but she still stands there smiling. I shake my head, hating that I have to even explain her to Quinn.

“I knew the moment that I would be reminded of the time we lost would come eventually,” Quinn continues in the face of my silence. “I figured it would have been you runnin’ into someone I . . . spent time with, though, and not the other way around. Didn’t expect it to be your old girlfriend I would run into seein’ as you were in Georgia and not here. Here, I would understand. It’s not easy to escape the things that happened in the town you live in. That bein’ said, I understand you had a life without me, Tate, and like I’ve been sayin’, I’m not gonna hold that against you. You didn’t make it across that battlefield you were fightin’ on only to step on a land mine now. Just tell me and I swear it’s the only time I’ll need to ask.” She pauses and holds my gaze. Something in her eyes makes me sit a little straighter and the fear dim. “That woman there isn’t someone you’d want here even if we hadn’t gotten back together, right?”

“Fuck no,” I spit out without even a millisecond of thought.

“Does she know that?”

“Quinn, the first day I heard your voice through the phone almost three months ago was the same day I had a conversation that needed to be had with that woman. She was a coworker at the hospital I worked at who, yes, I unfortunately crossed the line with almost a year ago, but it had ended long before that talk and she knew it. I only wanted to attempt to make the last month I worked with her go smoother and even told her about the woman I was hoping to win back when I finally went home to Texas. Trust me when I tell you she didn’t have a single doubt as to where I stood.”

Quinn flinches when I mention crossing the line with Ella, but other than that, she doesn’t give me a clue as to what she’s thinking.

“And now?”

“I had her number blocked through my carrier almost two months ago, the same day you showed up at my office pissed as hell at me after wakin’ up in my bed hungover. I did that because she wouldn’t stop harassin’ me, Quinn. But I did it well before you finally gave me back your love.”

She nods and looks away from me to narrow her eyes at Ella again. I don’t look away, my concern only being for Quinn. Because of that, I’m rewarded with one hell of a sight. She shakes her arms out and rolls her head, the braid in her hair moving like a wild rope being shaken from one end. When she looks back at me, there isn’t anything reflecting on her face at me except the devious expression she normally only gets when she and Leigh are plotting something together, the two little devils. One corner of her full lips is tipped up, and even in the middle of some serious fucked-up shit, she looks happy as fucking hell.

“You’re gonna let me lead, Tate. Wanna know why?”

I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak without swallowing my tongue. Fucking hell, I shouldn’t be this turned on after feeling like I was about to have a panic-driven heart attack just a few minutes ago, but the sight of the confident woman I love overcoming the fear I saw in her eyes during my father’s call is inspiring. The woman before me giving testament to just how far Quinn has come in overcoming what had gripped her tight for so long.

“You’re gonna let me lead because your woman is a hell-raisin’ badass, and no one messes with her man.”

“Goddamn,” I breathe, my heartbeat not roaring in my ears anymore—nope, it’s rushed south now.

“Give me a kiss, Starch, and sit back and enjoy. You might not be able to hit a woman, but I can.”

Then, without waiting for me to actually give her the kiss she demanded, she leans over the console and gives me a hell of a smooch, one that sets my already painfully hard cock throbbing.

When I open my eyes, I see her door open and just her long braid licking up in the air as she jumps from the truck. “Shit,” I hiss, unsnapping my seat belt and rushing to get down from the truck myself.

“Who the hell are you?” I hear her yell at Ella.

Ella actually has the decency to look alarmed. Whatever fucked-up thought convinced her coming here would be a good idea isn’t looking so good now, I’m guessing.

“Uh,” she starts before clearing her throat, “I’m his girlfriend, and who might you be?”

Quinn throws her head back and laughs. A breeze picking up around us makes the material of her sleeveless top dance around her tiny frame. It’s nothing fancy, just some sheer blue material that’s about as dressy as it gets for a normal day with Quinn. Her boots are dirty and scuffed from long wear. The frayed edges of her shorts stand out against her tan skin. Right now, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“Oh, bless your heart,” Quinn says sweetly. She turns back toward the truck and calls out to me. “Tate, honey, did you forget somethin’ back in Georgia?”

I cough to cover up my laugh, walking the rest of the way from my truck to the bottom of the porch steps where Quinn is standing and placing my arm over her shoulder. She wraps her body around mine instantly, one arm around my back and the other around my gut, her front pressed tight to my side as she looks up at me. I shake my head just enough, loving this woman even more than I thought possible.

“Got everything I ever wanted right here, darlin’. Nothin’ forgotten now that I got this back.”

“You hear that?” Quinn calls, smiling brightly up at me.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Ella asks snottily, apparently unwilling to admit defeat.

Quinn’s eyes sparkle, fucking twinkle like a goddamn kaleidoscope. I soak that shit up before she looks away, stepping out from my body and on to the bottom step. Never in the sixteen years that I’ve known her have I seen something so beautifully confident and strong in her eyes.

Until today.