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

armored against any further pain. And he’d slowly and methodically dismantled all her efforts at self-protection. Even making her open her heart to his son, whom Quinn could snatch away from her on a whim.

She sat in the center of the small couch, leaving no doubt that Quinn wasn’t invited to sit next to her.

Thank God she hadn’t let Sean get too close.

And at that thought, she heard her indrawn breath stutter. Because she had let Sean get too close. She cared what happened to him, and she cared whether she ever got to see him again. Quinn held not only one, but two giant slices of her heart.

“You want water?” Quinn asked from the kitchen. His voice sounded almost—but not quite—normal.

“Yes, please.” It would give her something to do, some small shield to hold between herself and Quinn. Between herself and her own feelings, which seemed to be expanding inside her and trying to break out.

Instead of handing the water glass to her, he set it down on the table in front of her. He could tell that she didn’t want to touch him.

He’d left the door open for the dogs, but they didn’t come in. They lounged by the pool, being obscene with each other. All that unconditional love made her want to… Well, she didn’t know what it made her want to do. Forgive him? No. Smack him? Maybe. She couldn’t decide.

He sat across from her in the matching chair. “So. You wanted to talk.” She agreed it was necessary, but she wasn’t about to make it easy for him. “You go first.”

“I fucked up.” He leaned forward, his forearms propped on his thighs, his fingers linked in front of him. “I complained to my real estate agent about those loud, annoying field trips when I first moved in here, before I’d even met you.”

“You complained.” She leaned back and crossed her arms. “And your Realtor just decided to take it upon himself to make your problem neighbor disappear.”

“Herself.”

Abby waved that stupid detail away with a flick of her fingers.

“And no,” he continued, his expression earnest. “She didn’t just decide to take it upon herself. I told her to do whatever it took to make the problem go away, and I promised her a signing bonus once she helped me sell this place.”

Abby crossed her legs and swung one foot, struggling to contain her anger. “And then what? You called your ex-boss—”

“Business partner,” he interrupted. “But I—”

“Whatever.” She flicked her fingers again and swung her foot harder. “You called JP and cooked up—”

“I didn’t—”

She scowled at him and he shut up. “And y’all cooked up a scheme to get rid of Bayside Barn, a scheme you backed out of after you convinced me to have sex with you?”

“Well, in my defense, you didn’t take much…” His voice trailed away, probably when he noticed the angry smoke coming out of her ears. He cleared his throat. “I didn’t call him; he called me. And we didn’t scheme or cook up anything. I told him I would think about what he said and get back to him, just to get him off the phone.”

“And you knew all this was about to happen, and you knew that you caused it, but you didn’t say anything to me. You lured me in with your helpful-nice-guy act and let me make a fool of myself over you. You lured me in, and all the while, you were lying to me.”

“No.” His voice sounded gentle and sad. “It wasn’t like that.” He spread his hands, an unspoken plea for her to listen. “I swear, I didn’t put the two things together in my mind. I had blown off steam to my real estate agent, and when I didn’t hear back from her, I figured she had ignored me. I had no idea she had spilled everything to JP.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me he wanted to buy all the land around us? Didn’t you think my aunt had a right to know that?”

“JP’s always full of grandiose plans. I didn’t think anything would come of it.”

“Humph.” She swung her foot, percolating on what he’d said. She could see how Quinn might have been too self-involved to have noticed what was going on all around him, or to care how it might impact her aunt. “Okay. I’ve heard you out.” She stood. “I’m going now.”

He jumped up and put a hand on her arm, a gentle, don’t-go touch. “Can we please try again?”

She shrugged away, and his hand dropped to his side. “You have a big problem to solve before I’ll think about that. You can keep me posted on your progress, and I’ll help out if I can. And Sean is always welcome at the farm. You can tell him you’re too busy to stop what you’re doing, and I won’t say anything about the current situation. That’s the best I can do for you right now.”

He put his hands in his pockets. His eyes were serious and sad. “I understand.”

She walked out through the open door, and he followed. Georgia put her front paws on Quinn’s leg and smiled her snarly grin, wagging her tail. It seemed to Abby that Georgia was asking him to come back to the farm with them. He petted her head, a reluctant no.

Abby turned her back and crossed the pool patio. After a second, she heard Georgia’s nails on the concrete as she trotted to catch up.

“Can Wolf stay here with me?” Quinn called out.

“Sure,” she called back over her shoulder. “He’s not my dog anyway. Never has been.”

* * *

Quinn tried to go back to painting—and he did; he painted another wall and the stairwell—but he had a hard time settling in. His heartbeat seemed to reverberate under his skin, making him feel jumpy and disconnected. Antsy. Like he needed to be doing something else. “Screw it.” He put the lid back on the paint bucket and took the roller and brush outside to rinse