Unraveled (Holding On Book 3) (25 page)

Quinn gritted her teeth as she tugged a hand through her mass of curls.

“Where did Dad go?”

“To make a few phone calls. I came back here to tell you,” Margo said.

Jesse couldn’t help but wonder just how long she’d waited to do that.

“Can we see her?” Quinn asked with forced calm.

“She needs her rest so she really shouldn’t have a roomful. But yes, I suppose it would be fine if you went in,” Margo conceded.

Quinn grabbed Jesse’s hand. “
We’re
going in,” she said as she gave him a tug. He didn’t offer any resistance. She glanced at Luke who reached over to give her a small smile and a shoulder squeeze as she walked past.

“The nerve of her!”
Quinn seethed. She let go of Jesse’s hand as they reached the hallway. “If I’d done that to her!? If I hadn’t let her know that Carly was awake…” she fumed, unable to complete the sentence.

“But she is awake,” Jesse said as they hurried along.

They both scanned the room numbers posted on the wall
next to each door, until they reached the one that they knew was Carly’s.

“
How could you Quinn!” Carly grumbled out in a gravelly voice. Jesse, who was a few steps behind Quinn, stopped in his tracks. “How could you leave me in here with her?”

Despite himself, he
smiled. Even planted in a hospital bed, she was as spunky as ever.

Quinn glanced over her shoulder and playfully scowled at him. “Well, I didn’t mean to,” she said as she marched across the room to Carly’s
bed. “It’s not my fault you decided to play the part of Sleeping Beauty. I had no idea you were awake.”

It didn’t appear to Jesse that Carly had heard a word her sister said. Her eyes were on him.

“You’re here?”

He frowned as he neared her bed. Did she really need to sound so
surprised? For the first time in his life, he rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m here. I love you. And unless I imagined it, you love me to.”

“You didn’t imagine it,” Carly said.
Her voice, usually so confident, sounded worn and strained.

“Well then,” Quinn interjected, “maybe I should come back later.
I feel like I’m interrupting a moment.”

Jesse chose not to acknowledge that. He moved closer,
wanting to pull her into a hug but she looked far too fragile. Instead, he settled for taking her hand in his. When he leaned over to kiss her forehead, her skin felt cool and clammy. Her pallor was terribly pale and plum-colored crescents hung under her eyes. Her long hair was a tangle on her pillow. Her exhaustion was evident. Even still, she looked beautiful.

“How are you? How do you feel?”
He scanned her face, noting some bruising and a line of stitches running parallel to her jaw line.

“Like I got hit by a truck.”

“Carly,” Quinn admonished. “Seriously, we’ve been so worried about you. You can imagine what it’s been like, trying to get information out of mom. We’ve all been going crazy, wondering if you’re okay. So really, how are you doing?”

“Well that,” she said as she
vaguely pointed to the morphine drip, “seems to be a wonderful thing. My head hurts like you wouldn’t believe. But it feels better now that Mom’s not in the room. I have a skull fracture,” she said, almost sounding surprised. “But it should heal on its own. You probably heard I had to have surgery but there isn’t much they can do for my cracked ribs.” She took a small, pained breath. “I won’t be able to go back to school for a while. I’m going to have to lie around like an invalid.”

“You mean you need to rest and recover,” Quinn pointed out.

“You won’t be going back to Rosewood?” Jesse asked. He was trying to keep his voice even. He hated the thought of Carly going back to that town, alone. Just the thought of her living alone after her ordeal was enough to make him feel a little bit crazy.

Carly gave a subtle shake of her head and then grimaced. “Mom
was having fits about me living alone.”

Quinn frowned in apology. “Sorry, Carly. I didn’t know what else to say.”

“No. It’s fine. I should’ve told her myself. She refuses to let me go back there. Not that it matters. According to the doctor, it’s probably going to be weeks before I can go back to my classes. I don’t know how I’d ever make the coursework up. It’s not like it’s high school. Some of the professors think that as long as you’re not dead, you should be there. No matter what.” She looked forlorn at the thought. “Mom was already badgering me. She thinks I just need to forget about school this semester so I can move back in with them.” The last of that sentence came out in a wail.

Jesse could see how upset this made Carly. He knew how badly she just wanted to be finished. Yet, it would be a lie if he let himself believe he wasn’t happy about this. For once, he and Margo might actually agree on something.

“Quinn, you have to help me,” Carly whimpered. Tears were brimming at the edges of her eyes.

“Of course,” Quinn said. “What’s wrong? What do you need?”

“The doctor said I shouldn’t be left alone when I get out of here. At least, not for a while. Mom’s already going on and on about taking me home with her. Quinn,” Carly squeaked out, “I can’t go home with her. I’ll lose my mind! Can I go home with you? I won’t be a bother. I know your house is already crazy but I’ll stay out of the way. You won’t even know I’m there. I promise.”

“Come home with me,” Jesse said before Quinn could say anything.

Both of the sisters turned to look at him. He gave them a sheepish shrug.

“What? I can take some time off work. I hardly ever take time off. I have almost a month of vacation time built up. We’re not too busy this time of year,” he explained. He was a loan officer and with the housing market quiet in the winter, it was a good time to take off. He frowned, “Unless you don’t want to.”

Carly squeezed his hand and some of the worry in her expression faded away. “You would really be okay with that?”

“
Carly
,” he said in exasperation.

She gave him a little nod. “Okay.”

2
0

“It’s not as good as I hoped. But it’s better than I expected.”

Quinn raised her eyebrows at Carly’s response. After some deliberating, she had decided to withdraw for the semester. Margo was relieved that she had made the decision just in time for the refund deadline.

“How is it better than you expected?” Quinn asked.

Carly shifted uncomfortably on the couch. She had been out of the hospital for a few days now. Jesse had taken most of the week off but today, he had a meeting he couldn’t miss. Quinn had offered to stay with Carly. Nora and Tom were taking care of the kids while Luke was at work.

Carly glanced down at the papers in her lap. She had decided to do something she swore she would never do. She was going to transfer back to Lanford to finish her degree.
The forms she had just glanced through were from both the Records Office and the Admissions Office at Lanford’s university.

“More classes transferred than I had thought would. Of course, I
hoped
they would all transfer. But I knew they wouldn’t.” She flipped through her notes again. She would have to take three extra classes to finish her degree in Lanford. If she took two classes in the summer and added one extra class to her fall course load, she would graduate at the end of the following fall semester.

That was nearly a year from now.

She wasn’t happy about delaying her graduation even more. She was already a year behind because she’d taken a year off between high school and college. At the same time, she really didn’t have a choice. There was simply no way she could return to Roseville this semester after missing so much school. Not that she wanted to. And even though she was out of the hospital, she was nowhere near ready for classes. Just going to her check-up yesterday had worn her out.

The thought of going back to the house in Roseville made her skin crawl with dread. Not to mention, she wanted to be closer to her family.

And Jesse.

So adding three more classes to her education, in place of three that wouldn’t transfer, was the trade-off she would have to make. She was willing to make it and it hadn’t been a hard decision to come to.

Quinn smiled at her. “I’m sorry about your graduation being delayed. I know how badly you want to be done with school. I am happy you’ll be back in town though.”

Carly smiled back. “Yeah, me too. Jesse wants me to stay here. Permanently.” She meant both in Lanford and in his house.

“
I  figured.”

He had already gone back to
Roseville to clear Carly out of her rental house. Shane had gone with to help with the move. They had met Melissa there and she had packed up Carly’s things while the guys had worked on moving the bigger items.

Now, everything was stacked in the corner of his guest bedroom, out of the way, until Carly could unpack and de
cide what to do with it.

“How is Mom taking that?” Quinn wondered.
Margo had not taken the news that Carly would be going to Jesse’s once she was released from the hospital well at all. Yet, Carly was well past the age of being a legal adult. So really, Margo should have no say.

S
he
shouldn’t
have, barring one rather large issue.

“I’ve already told her I was going to move in with Jesse permanently. She had a complete meltdown,” Carly admitted with a sigh. “She started threatening me with my tuition, of course.”

Quinn wasn’t surprised by this. Margo had done the same to her. It had been a veiled threat, always in the background.
Do what I say, or you’re on your own for school
.

“I get what she’s saying,” Carly continued. “I really do. It’s her
prerogative not to give me the money. At the same time, I’m almost twenty-four! Jesse is almost twenty-eight. We’re old enough to decide how we live our lives. So I told her if she didn’t want to pay for my last two semesters that was fine. I haven’t had to take out a student loan yet, but there’s no reason I couldn’t. I mean, some people have to pay for their
entire
education that way.”

Quinn raised her eyebrows. “How did that go?”

A small smile appeared on Carly’s lips. “Mom was fuming. She didn’t like that I’d found a way to get past her rules. But
Dad
, he said absolutely not. He turned to Mom and told her that my tuition was their responsibility and that they would be paying it. Just like they had done for you. And that was that.”

“Good for Dad,” Quinn said decisively. She hesitated before going on. Finally, she said, “Did Mom tell you she contacted the Abbots?”

Carly groaned. Margo hadn’t mentioned it. Not that she was surprised. Leave it to her mother to meddle. Then again, Carly had gotten nowhere. Overall, she was too exhausted, both physically and emotionally, to really even care.

“She did,” Quinn said with a small nod.
“To be honest, I’m glad. They mailed her a check the other day and they told her they would deal with Nolan. I have no idea what they meant by that. I guess really, he’s not our concern.”

Carly made a wry face at that. “No. He’s not. I’m glad Mom and Dad got their money, though.”

Quinn glanced at the clock on the fireplace mantel. “I think it’s time for your nap.”

Carly rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious.” She
was
tired. Even though she was out of the hospital, she was nowhere near feeling like her old self. Whether she would admit it or not, Jesse knew it. He had been hovering over her all week. Rather than be annoyed—like she would’ve been if she’d had to go home with Margo—she found it endearing. He took his care of her very seriously.

Quinn stood and reached over to carefully help Carly to her feet. “I am completely serious. Jesse told me that you get tired around this time every day. He said that I shouldn’t wear you out. He was pretty adamant that I
be sure you get your nap. In fact, if I don’t follow his orders, I don’t think he’ll let me stay with you again.”

“He’s a worrier,” Carly pretended to grumble.
Though her sister was smiling, she thought there was a good chance that she meant what she said. Jesse may have truly threatened her with just that.