Megan caught Quincy’s eyes. “Why don’t you tell her how you feel?” Her question was just above a whisper.
CHAPTER 15
Quincy looked over his shoulder, surprising several other breakfast patrons, who promptly glanced away. He turned back to Megan. “How many people know?”
/> Darius swallowed a bite of steak. “Who doesn’t? Your inner twelve-year-old takes over whenever you’re around her. What I want to know is what do you see in her?”
“She’s smart.”
“She’s conniving.”
“I like her sense of humor.”
“She has one?”
Quincy scowled at him. “Do you want an answer to your question or not?”
Darius held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry.”
Quincy tipped back his head, staring at the off-white ceiling. What was there to love about Ramona? A woman who couldn’t see beyond her own reflection, who used his feelings to taunt him with her other men and who’d barely acknowledged his existence in fourteen years. Why was he lost in love with her?
He must be a masochist.
Quincy addressed Megan. “She makes me feel protective. There’s a vulnerability about her.”
Darius’s eyes widened. “She’s a shark.”
Quincy opened his mouth to blast Darius. Megan’s hand on his shoulder quieted him.
“Ramona and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I agree with everything Quincy’s said.” Megan squeezed Quincy’s shoulder before releasing him. “Darius, you’ve obviously never been in love. Sometimes you can’t explain your feelings. You just feel.”
Quincy couldn’t have put it any better.
“I wish I could stop feeling.” He offered Megan the bill and his credit card, then followed her to the cash register. “I hope the University of Pennsylvania offers me that faculty position.”
Megan ran his credit card through the card reader, then returned it to him with his receipt. “It’s been six years since Ramona and Ean broke up. Why haven’t you asked her out?”
Quincy was shaking his head before he heard the end of Megan’s question. “I’m not competing against Ean. I don’t want to be the runner-up.”
“You’re right. You’re not competing against him. You’re competing against yourself.” Megan held his gaze. “Give yourself a chance, Quincy. Give Ramona a chance.”
Megan glanced at Wesley Hayes, one of her part-time assistants, who walked the aisles of Books & Bakery with her as they closed the shop Thursday night. The high school junior was a great employee—smart, efficient and dependable. She started to tell him that when the chime above the store’s front door interrupted her.
“I’ll be right back.”
“All right, Ms. McCloud.” Wesley’s response was preoccupied.
Megan checked her red Timex as she hurried to the front of the store to greet the last-minute patron. It was five minutes to eight. Why would someone arrive so late? Everyone in town knew the store closed promptly at eight P.M. during the week.
Her steps faltered when she recognized Ean strolling forward. She hadn’t seen much of him since Sunday. She’d begun to think the last kiss they’d shared had never happened. His loose-limbed grace drew her eyes to his faded denim jeans and his long, strong thighs underneath.
Megan jerked her gaze upward. “We’re closing in a few minutes. Is there something I can help you find?”
“No, thanks. I’ve already found her.” Ean tossed her a boyish grin.
Did he think those pretty words and that sexy grin would make her forget his five days of silence? He was right.
She returned his smile. “Did you come to walk me home?”