Page 62 of For Your Consideration

“I’ll beat you in rock-paper-scissors for it,” Will challenged. Noah had started that stupid tradition in our group for when we couldn’t agree on something or just needed to add some lightness to our day.

Although it annoyed me, I was pretty fucking good at it.

“Quinn?” Oli finally called on her. Because one thing that was new to our group dynamic was that everyone asked Quinn to weigh in on a topic and whatever she decided usually stood. She didn’t even know the power she had over all of us.

Or maybe she did, but she was a natural at keeping us all in line.

“Water beds are a terrible idea, Will.” She smiled sweetly and patted his shoulder as she passed.

“Where’d Noah go? Bet he would agree with me,” Will grumbled.

“I forgot something and he ran out to grab it for me. Can you boys take these out to Theo on the patio?” Quinn asked.

I didn’t move as the rest of the guys did as she asked. I frowned, tilting my head as I watched Quinn.

“You’re hiding something.”

She moved around the kitchen, not meeting my eyes. Quinn and I were close, and I could read her well.

“Yeah, hiding the fact that I didn’t want to talk about Will and his water bed obsession anymore.” She tried to make a joke, but it fell flat.

“You’re a terrible liar,” I said as I took another sip of my beer. She still hadn’t looked at me. “Where’s Noah?”

She had her head in the fridge, pushing things around. “Huh?”

I rolled my eyes at her obvious avoidance. “What did Noah run out to grab?”

“We were low on beer.”

I knew that wasn’t true since I’d just grabbed a couple from the beer fridge downstairs. Knight always had it stocked with an endless supply and he’d never run out on a Saturday, especially since at least one of us always brought a case. We could survive the apocalypse with the amount of beer down there.

“Uh-huh.” I narrowed my eyes at her. We both knew I could get her to break.

“Can you take this to Theo?” She pushed the plate of meat over to me and before I could wear her down, Oli and Will came back in, still arguing about the water beds.

I stood up shaking my head as she shot me a mischievous smile over her shoulder. I stepped outside. Jaxson and Knight were at the grill, both with beers in hand.

“Your fiancée is hiding something,” I said as I leaned against the counter beside the grill.

“I know,” Knight replied with a smile as he took the plate from me. “She’s been avoiding me all day. Literally after those texts she jumped out of bed and hasn’t looked at me since.”

“Any idea what it is?”

“No clue.”

I’d known Knight for most of my life and the fact that he was smiling and not bothered that someone was hiding something from him was not only a testament to how far he’d come, but to how much he trusted Quinn.

“Have you decided who’s going to head up security at the private club?” I asked Jaxson, changing topics. Jaxson had always run the security arm of our business and he was good at it. We owned security technology companies, for-hire bodyguards, and then had our own internal security for our different venues and purposes.

“I just got signed paperwork from Lisa yesterday. She’s going to sit in on the interviews for the main guards with me in the coming weeks.”

“Things are coming together quickly,” Knight added with a nod.

“Yo, Jaxson!” Oli called from the door. “We’re on table-setting duty. Get your ass in here!”

Knowing the request was coming from Quinn, he left without complaint.

“Aren’t you supposed to head to London on Monday?” Knight asked, already knowing the answer. He and I hadn’t had a chance to connect but my guess was Shelly had told him I changed my plans.