by Anne Harper
“The last time I talked about men when I was in a restaurant, it went viral. I think I’ll keep my mouth shut on that front this time.”
Liere wasn’t taking that answer. She put her menu down. And then flipped her phone over so the screen was hidden.
Oh yeah, definitely not suspicious at all there, Liere.
“But now it’s us you’re with, and I just have to say that you can’t let Greg waste any more of your life by swearing off men in spite of him.”
Nell hadn’t expected that. Sure, Mother Hen Liere mother-henning subtly until the wine kicked in had very much been on the table, not Bulldozer Liere waiting to demolish right out the gate.
“Greg didn’t waste my life,” Nell responded with a little bite. She was tired of this comment. Even before they’d broken up, that had been the general consensus with Liere and Mateo. Now Nell realized she wanted to squash that line of thinking more than ever. “And every time one of you says that he did, you’re insulting me and the choices I made. No one ever forced me to date Greg and to keep dating him. I did all that and so, if you have to say something, say I was the one who wasted my life. Not Greg.”
Nell made sure to share her bite with Olly, who was trying her hardest to look impartial. Though Nell fully believed there was a fat chance in hell that the two of them hadn’t rehearsed this little conversation when Nell had run across the road to her house earlier to grab her dress.
Liere was undeterred. She might say “I” but Nell more than suspected she was a mouthpiece for the entire Bennett sibling group.
“I just don’t want you to miss out on something really great because you made a ridiculous stance out of anger.”
That got Nell going. She lowered her voice and stared across the table with all the swelling of sibling grumpiness.
“Last I checked, Mateo was the only Bennett kid who wasn’t single. So I don’t get why I’m the center of attention on this. In fact, I dated Greg for nearly four years. That’s a record in this family, right?”
Liere raised her eyebrow.
“You might have put ‘In a relationship’ on your Facebook page, but we both know that you and Greg were basically just pen pals the last few years. He barely visited you and vice versa. Why do you think you’re not a heartbroken puddle on the floor right now?”
Nell gritted her teeth. “Because right now, I thought I was enjoying some quality time with my sisters.”
Liere’s expression softened. She reached across the table and put her hand over Nell’s.
“I think it doesn’t hurt the way it should because—”
“Greg wasn’t my ‘the one,’” Nell finished, pulling from their earlier conversation.
Liere nodded.
“We just don’t want you to shut down because it didn’t work out, is all. We want you to be happy. Always.”
Olly joined in on the family contact and put an arm around Nell and squeezed. Nell breathed out her anger. She gave her annoying older sister a small, but there, smile.
“Fine. Then buy me a drink, not perform an intervention. Or I’m coming for your questionable relationship past, cool?”
Liere patted her hand. “That’s only fair.”
They went back to their menus and Olly took the conversational floor. What Nell didn’t do was tell her sisters about the need to get Dweller’s Cove or the possibility that she could end up buying Heart in Hand. Carla Jean hadn’t been working that day anyway, so she hadn’t made any headway yet on her plan.
Nell had a savings account, but it wasn’t fantastic. Still, surely she could get a bank loan?
Nope. Sister time, not worry time, she chided herself.
So Nell mentally pivoted back and listened as Olly unloaded gossip about some of her coworkers.
But Quinn was sneaky. One second she was listening about nose jobs and the next she was thinking about him.
The last time she’d been in a restaurant, Quinn had been the one sitting across from her. Book discarded, jokes abounding, and a meal that capped a day that included a breakup and a marathon of car crying. Yet Quinn had given her an escape.
An escape from the cluster that she’d found herself in. An escape from feeling lost after one of the constants for the last four years of her life had disappeared. Yeah, she and Greg hadn’t seen each other a lot in those years, but he’d always been there. A phone call away.
Liere was right. The breakup should have hurt more. She should be hurting more. Then and now. But here she was thinking…
If Quinn would like her dress.
I need a lot of wine. Stat.
“Well, look at you all putting the rest of this place to shame.”
For the briefest of moments, Nell thought she’d somehow conjured Quinn just by thinking about him. That some of Eric Waller’s earlier insistence that fate had brought him and her back together after years of being apart was instead bringing Nell to a man who honest to God hated the internet. But then Liere was all smiles and recognition.
“Hey, Wren!”
The name wasn’t familiar to Nell, but she took a stab in the dark that he worked with Liere at the accounting firm. He was older, maybe early forties, and well-kept with groomed blond hair and a smart suit, and seemed perfectly friendly with the oldest Bennett sibling. He also just had that air about him. That I’m so responsible vibe, eking out from his nice smile and skinny tie.
“You keep talking like that and you’re going to earn yourself a drink,” Olly said. Nell, who apparently was the only one who didn’t know Wren—a rare occurrence—gave the man a polite smile. He returned it.
“And here I was about to offer you three a round of drinks,” he responded.
Liere waved her hand.
“After dealing with the Abner case at work all week? No way. A drink is on us.” She stood quickly and motioned for Olly to follow. “Help me, Olly.”
“That’s not necessary,” Wren tried, but when Liere had her mind set to something, there was no way anyone, let alone a man, was going to change it.
A fact that Wren must have known to accept as she basically pushed the man into her chair. Which was odd, considering he’d just walked up to presumably say hello and now he was being forced into their table.
What is it with this family and kidnapping men?
Nell was about to raise that question, but then Liere did something sneaky yet not sneaky at all. She winked at Wren before pushing Olly toward the bar. Nell tilted her head in question. Wren saw it and chuckled.
“I’m guessing she gets her way in the real world outside of work, too, huh?”
Nell laughed. “Can confirm.”
Wren shrugged.
“It definitely helps at work, so I can’t say I’m ready to complain.” He outstretched his hand. “I don’t know what she’s said about me, but I’m Wren Blocker.”
Nell had a whopping sense of déjà vu.
Another good-looking man sitting across from her at a restaurant when she hadn’t thought to expect one.
Maybe the secret to meeting men was to announce publicly that you were swearing off them?
“I’m Antonella. Call me Nell.” She took his hand and shook. “Since I grew up with her as my big sister, I’ve already been complaining about that one for years.”
Nell turned toward the bar and caught Liere and Olly straight up staring at them. They were just as obvious as they tried to play it off. Liere whipped around, despite the bartender still not being there, and Olly actually looked up at the ceiling.
Why are they being so weird? was what Nell’s mouth was about to ask, but her brain cut the connection as she watched Wren slip his phone into his blazer pocket. Nell got a bad feeling in her gut. An embarrassing one.
No way. Liere didn’t…
Still, she needed to be sure.
“So, Wren, are you here alone? A
re we keeping you from someone?” Before Nell had finished the question, a look of realization passed over the man’s face. Followed by that look.
That I’ve been had look.
Nell popped her elbow up on the table and leaned her head against her hand, effectively blocking her sneaky sisters from seeing her face.
“Let me take a wild guess here and say you’re who Liere has been texting?”
Wren might have been older, but he was quick to mimic the somewhat childish body language so Liere and Olly couldn’t see their expressions or read their lips. He also kept his smile up. It crinkled the skin at the corners of his eyes.
“Yes, ma’am. She actually told me I should come out with a group of people to help blow off steam from work.” Nell must have made a face. Wren chuckled. “And let me take a wild guess here and say she didn’t tell you that.”
“She did not. It was supposed to be just the three of us.”
“And now it’s the Bennett sisters and the old man.”
Nell couldn’t help but laugh at the way he said the last part.
“More like the Bennett sisters and the poor, presumably single guy who fell into a Liere trap.”
Wren closed his eyes in defeat for a moment. He was still smiling as he responded. “I should have known something was up when she casually mentioned that her sister was single. I thought it was an odd detail, considering I was under the impression I was just coming here to eat steak and probably talk about work.”
Nell let out a good-natured sigh.
So Liere hadn’t been a bulldozer with an intervention out of the gate. She’d been a sneaky sister trying to grease the wheels before the man she tricked into a blind date showed up.
“We’ve been Liered.”
He gave one curt nod. Then sighed.
“She means well, but I’m not one for crashing girls’ night, hoping to get lucky.” He sat up straight. “I think it’s better if I slip out now before I get trapped again.”
Nell didn’t know why, but she liked Wren. Whether it was because he was being such a good sport about their situation or because he hadn’t been another thirsty guy trying to get into her pants, Nell took pity on him. She leaned in closer and grinned.
“Hey, you should at least get a free drink out of her first for the trouble. I’ll gladly play along with her obvious plan if it involves a glass of wine I don’t have to pay for.”
Wren seemed to weigh the options. Then he was in.
“I guess I can’t argue with that.”
Despite the restaurant being understaffed, Liere and Olly were back in no time with drinks. Two, to be exact. Nell and Wren shared a look, one Nell hoped said, Are they seriously about to ditch us?
But then Nell’s cell phone vibrated quite loudly from her purse.
All eyes were on her as she pulled it out and, she assumed, made a face.
“Who is it?” Liere asked, unabashedly nosy.
“My boss.” She heard her own confusion in it, just as she felt her neck heating up. “Give me a second.”
Nell excused herself to the bathrooms. She stopped in the hall right before the doors and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Nell, it’s Quinn.”
Such a simple statement, yet his baritone was like a shot of whiskey to the system. That heat in her neck became a flush to her face. Nell fought through it to try and remain professional.
Unless…was it a personal call?
“Hey, what’s up?”
Even with the restaurant chatter behind her, Nell could hear frustration and urgency in his voice.
“I’m sorry to call you on a Saturday, but Donavon said you’d know what to do. Apparently his old friend who is staying in the Bluebell Cabin with his wife called him directly, complaining about someone yelling out in the woods. Said he didn’t want to call the cops because he, and I quote, ‘isn’t a snitch,’ but he will if it doesn’t stop. Now, I don’t know why we aren’t calling the cops ourselves and why Donavon said to call you but—”
“Don’t call the cops,” Nell interrupted.
So the call was professional, and one she did know how to handle. She started back toward their table in the main room, talking quickly as she went.
“What are you doing now? Can you meet me at the office? I can be there in ten.”
“Yeah, I can meet. But what for?”
“I’ll explain when I get there.”
“Okay… See you then.”
Nell ended the call next to her empty chair.
“What did Quinn want?” Olly asked. Nell decided to answer her but keep eye contact with the only person currently sitting at the table who had been honest in the last ten minutes.
“I need to head to the office pronto so, I’m sorry, but I have to leave.”
Liere opened her mouth, but it was Wren who spoke.
“You know what? I realized I left a few things I needed to finish at work myself. I can give you a ride if you need it?” He stood tall and fished some money out of his wallet and put it on the table next to his untouched drink.
Liere closed her mouth around a small grin.
She still thought she was winning, but Nell didn’t have time to play passive aggressive with her.
She nodded, thankful for the offer, since Liere had driven them there.
“That would actually be really nice. Thank you.”
They didn’t waste any time getting out to the parking lot and into a small sporty car. Nell would have commented on the sleek thing, but she was already in work mode, despite how her next request sounded.
“I know you’re already helping me out, but is there any way we could swing by the liquor store first?”
Bless him, he didn’t question it. All he did was comment with a laugh.
“Our work emergencies are vastly different.”
Nell just hoped Quinn would find it all equally humorous when she had to explain to him how alcohol was about to save Heart in Hand’s collective butts.
Chapter Ten
Heart in Hand after hours looked just like a normal house. One with the kitchen light over the sink left on and blinds drawn while the owners slept or were away. It reminded Quinn of his old house. The one he’d bought with his ex-wife after they’d married and the one he’d left for an apartment after they’d divorced. But that house felt like a lifetime ago.
Now Arbor Bay, Heart in Hand, and the tiny house he was slightly afraid he’d accidentally push over were all trying to grow on him. He felt it, leaning against his car in the parking lot and staring at the rental management business’s sign. His heart was trying to make him fond of his new home.
He didn’t like it, feeling like he should attach. Yet it’s exactly what his goal was. Arbor Bay wasn’t just a place he had landed, it was a place he hoped to make his son’s new beloved home. Right now, Owen was spending time with his mom before she took off for a life filled with travel for work, but after that? It would be the Quinn and Owen show on a permanent basis.
Two Hannigans with their new start.
Which was why his shower thoughts about Nell were dangerous. He couldn’t chance the life he was building. He couldn’t let his eye get off the ball. Not when it was for his son.
Quinn snorted, frustration making him turn toward headlights farther down the road.
Aside from his frustration, he wasn’t over the moon about being left in the dark by Donavon on this newest issue. If there was some kind of trouble, especially a man yelling in the woods, they needed to call the law. Not rope in Nell by making her leave her house to come out on a Saturday night, especially not when the sound of thunder was starting to rumble in the distance.
Quinn was ready to repeat that sentiment and apologize to the woman as soon as they were face to face, but then a lot of things happened and Quinn wasn’t prepared
for a single one of them.
First of all, instead of seeing Nell’s older, worn car pull into the lot, Quinn was left staring at red 370z. Low to the ground, slick, and rumbling. He didn’t have a chance to ask the driver what they were doing before the passenger’s side door opened and Nell herself emerged.
That’s what got Quinn next.
The second thing he wasn’t expecting had him nearly picking his jaw up off the gravel.
Bathed in the combined light of streetlamp and headlights, Nell was absolutely stunning. From her cloud of curls to lips that were rimmed in dark to a dress that showed more exposed skin than he had ever seen on the woman. Quinn had assumed she was spending a Saturday night in after everything that had happened with Donavon’s new ultimatum, never mind the viral video and Keith’s post. Maybe watching TV in her sweats and trying to relax, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
She was done up. Done up enough to make his thoughts jumble.
The third and fourth details Quinn wasn’t ready for filtered in at the same time.
Nell was holding a six-pack of beer against the dress he decided would forever be his favorite and whoever the driver of the sports car was, she was smiling at them.
At him.
The streetlight showed a man behind the wheel.
Had Nell been on a date?
She shut the door with a laugh and gave the driver a wave as he reversed back out onto the street.
“Sorry, I had to stop and get this,” she greeted, hurrying over. She motioned to the six-pack, then to his car. “Now, we need to hustle to Bluebell Cabin.”
Quinn regained his composure long enough to open the door for her and try to pretend her perfume hadn’t just added to the list of distractions.
“We’re taking beer to the renters?”
“No. We’re taking it to the yelling man.”
Quinn hurried around the car and slid in, eyebrow still raised high.
“I think I’m going to need a little more explanation on that one.”
Nell blew out a breath that moved a long tangle of hair. She readjusted the cans of beer on her lap.
