Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay, Babette Jongh [book club books txt] 📗

the podium, and waved the hat in the air. She started the chant, and then the whole crowd joined in.

Quinn hauled Abby up close, but stopped kissing her long enough to join in the chant: “Go, Bayside Barn Buddies, go!”

* * *

A mixed-up mass of emotions clogged Abby’s throat, and tears prickled behind her eyes as she sat next to Quinn in the office of the title company and watched him sign away everything he’d salvaged from his previous life. He flipped to another flagged page of the document, signed his name again, then repeated the process, over and over again.

Giving it all away to save Bayside Barn.

He laid the pen aside and slid the sheaf of papers across the conference table toward the mayor, who stacked the documents and grinned. “The city of Magnolia Bay thanks you, sir.”

“You drive a hard bargain.” Quinn stood and offered his hand across the table. “But I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”

The mayor had given Quinn until Labor Day to complete the building of the shelter and, as he so kindly put it, “get the hell out.” Mayor Wright wasn’t entirely happy about having to give up the prospect of the marina complex, so Quinn had been forced to sweeten the bait by promising that the shelter’s grand opening would happen before the city’s next mayoral election.

Abby stood, too, and Quinn took her hand in his. He squeezed her fingers. “We’d better go get to work.”

We, because the city council had indeed hired Abby to run the shelter. While Quinn was supervising the construction teams, Abby would be setting up the shelter’s office and interviewing potential staff members.

“Yep,” boomed the mayor. “Time’s a-wasting, clock’s a-ticking. Y’all better get busy.”

Abby waited for the familiar sense of worry to creep up behind her. How would they get everything done, even with the city’s financial backing and a slew of helping hands pitching in? What if the pressure of working together proved to be too great a strain on Abby and Quinn’s new relationship? But the worry and anxiety that had plagued her all these months seemed to have faded away. The what-ifs ahead would be challenging, no doubt. But she and Quinn would conquer them together.

Epilogue

“Abby,” Quinn said from the bathroom doorway. “What in the world are you doing?”

“You mean, besides taking a bath?” She poured another cup of water over her head, then yelled, “Whoo! That was fun! I’m getting clean!” She repeated the process, but this time instead of yelling, she shook her head and splattered water all over the bathroom and the two dogs who sat by the bathtub, watching Abby’s antics.

“Looks to me like you’re putting on a show for these dogs.” And for him, too; her wet, naked body and rosy-tipped breasts were a sight to behold.

“I’m really just doing it for Wolf.” She reached out to the dog, who leaned forward just close enough to lick her fingers but no closer. “I’m trying to show him that a bath is a good thing.”

She dunked the cup back into the water to fill it, then poured it out over her head, hollering with false glee and intentionally splattering the dogs. “I want Wolf to know that a little water won’t hurt him.”

“I don’t know about Georgia,” Quinn said, “but Wolf thinks you’re crazy.”

“I know.” Abandoning the cup idea, Abby dipped a washcloth into the sudsy water and reached out to wipe Wolf’s face. She got one good swipe in before he backed out of her reach. “But we’ve put up with his dirt-tracking, stinky self long enough. Now that he’s coming inside so much, he needs to learn about baths. Also, he’s scheduled to be neutered this week, and I refuse to take a dirty dog to the vet.”

Quinn chuckled. “I understand your motivation; I’m just not sure you’re going about it the right way.”

Abby squeezed out the washcloth. “Let’s hear your bright idea, then.”

Quinn eased into the small bathroom and peeled his shirt off over his head. “Dogs,” he ordered. “Out.”

The dogs ran out and Quinn closed the door, turning the lock just in case. Now that Reva was back at the farm and the estate was a construction zone, privacy was hard to come by.

Reva, Mack, Edna, President Tammy, Mayor Wright, and a few other folks on the shelter’s planning committee had all been known to just show up and walk on into the pool house, hollering for Quinn to show them the latest progress on the shelter. But they had an official tour for the shelter’s planning committee scheduled in a few hours, so Quinn figured he and Abby were safe for now. But he jiggled the bathroom doorknob to make sure the lock was secure.

Abby held the damp washcloth to her naked breasts. “What are you doing?”

He skimmed his jeans and underwear down his legs in one motion and stepped out of them. “It’s step one of my bright idea.”

Her hazel eyes went round at his audacity—and hopefully his anatomy, too, which left no doubt of his intentions. “First, you and I take a bath.”

“I know you know how to take a bath, Quinn.” She scooted to the end of the tub. “It’s the dog I’m trying to convince. And I’m not sure you and I will both fit in here.”

“Oh, yeah,” he promised, “we’ll fit.”

He climbed in, practically on top of her, sending a tidal wave of water over the tub’s rim. She giggled. “How does this get the dog clean, exactly?”

“I promise I’ll bathe Wolf later,” he said in between kisses. He had planned to bathe the dog before the meeting, anyway. Abby’s little peep show was just a happy accident. “I’m working up sufficient motivation, because I know it won’t be easy.”

Abby scooted down and adjusted their position; with her hips cradling his, he quickly found the opening he sought and plunged inside. His mighty thrust pushed Abby upward; her back skidded against the wet porcelain tub, making a squeaking