Love Notes: The Complete Series by DJ Jamison

Author:DJ Jamison [Jamison, DJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-15T18:30:00+00:00

JONAS

I slid Quinn’s basket of food in front of him and retook my seat with my own. The aromas made my mouth water. Turned out my appetite wasn’t entirely gone. For a few minutes, we lost ourselves in warm, savory food after an afternoon spent in the cold, and there was nothing more comforting.

“So?” I prompted once I’d cleared half my plate and come up for air.

“So?” Quinn echoed, looking puzzled. A cute wrinkle formed between his eyes. He tilted his head just a bit, like an inquisitive puppy.

“I just gave you some of my baggage. You want to tell me what’s really going on with you running up here?”

“Oh.” He broke eye contact and focused on his plate, stirring his soup aimlessly. “This again.”

“I’m not saying you have to—”

“Bad relationship,” Quinn cut in. He spoke abruptly. “I dropped out last March and never went back in September. Moved to Nevada with my ex, actually. So…yeah. Here I am, trying to get my shit together.”

“Damn. You followed a guy all the way to Nevada?”

He met my gaze unflinchingly, but his voice came out a whisper. “I made some big mistakes.”

“Why’d you drop out of school?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I was stupid. Started seeing Clay. Moved in with him. College wasn’t going great, and I was struggling to make time for it, Clay, and my job at a B&B. Skipped too many classes, made bad choices…” Quinn let out a shuddery breath. “Anyway, Clay convinced me he had this friend in LA, a businessman. Basically, I was a naïve idiot, and it seemed like a great escape. But Clay’s funds ran out before we made it there. I took a job at a hotel in this little town in Nevada where we ended up. Worked there up until the day I left.”

“What made you leave?”

“I realized I made a massive mistake, and by then, Clay was…he was…”

I leaned in over the table, my gut tightening. I didn’t like where this was going. “He was what, Quinn?”

“Not nice.”

I tensed. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not like you’re thinking. He didn’t lay a hand on me. But…” Quinn took a breath. I could see it was hard for him to get the words out. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed him to tell me. We were out at the bar, with great food, and we should have been having fun, not revisiting our traumas. What the hell was wrong with me?

“You don’t have to tell me. It’s okay.”

I didn’t need to hear the words to know Clay was a piece of shit who’d manipulated Quinn into leaving Nebraska. At best, he’d failed to live up to his promises. At worst, he’d never intended to.

“I didn’t love him,” Quinn said, his voice eerily calm. “I don’t know if he loved me, but if he did, it was a toxic kind of love. I had to leave.”

“I’m glad you did.”

He nodded once. “I need this job I’m interviewing for. I’ve got nothing if this doesn’t work out.”

“Well, that’s not true.

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