by Cindi Madsen
“Come on,” he said, running his fingers down her necklace. “I’ve shown you I’m serious about you.”
The diamond charm suddenly weighed a hundred pounds. She reached back, undid the clasp, and thrust it toward him. “Sorry, I’m not for sale.”
Grayson set his jaw, not making a move to take the necklace. With his neat brown hair, dimpled chin, and pale blue eyes, he always seemed classically handsome, but right now she wanted to punch him right in his perfect nose. The emotions she’d tried to contain broke through, too. Disappointment and animosity and pain. She’d thought she’d finally found a guy who understood, but he was just like all the others.
“Now, don’t go doing anything rash,” he said, an unspoken threat in his words.
“Rash? You’re the one pushing. Aren’t you always saying good investments are worth waiting for?”
“Yeah, but you’ve got to know when to walk away, too. Some things aren’t worth the time you put in.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Despite her attempts to keep it down, the question burst out of her, earning them a couple of looks.
Grayson wrapped his hand around her arm and walked her a few feet away, where a pillar wrapped in red ribbon and white lights blocked them from view. “Seriously, can you not keep it together, even in front of my family?”
She jerked free. “You’re the one who came over and demanded sex. My swearing, my stance on waiting—it’s a package deal. You either take me as I am, or we might as well end this now.”
The fact that he didn’t immediately tell her he wanted her as she was said everything. Tears pushed at her eyes. She shoved the necklace at Grayson again, slamming it to his chest and letting go, and then headed to the parking lot to collect herself so she could force on a happy face and get through the reception with her freshly exed boyfriend and his entire family.
…
Heath glanced at the stage where Will was still fiddling with his drums and then scanned the area, hoping to find Sadie, but she was nowhere to be seen. Probably got pulled away to chat.
Should I go hunt her down, or… Quinn quickened her pace, rushing in the direction of the parking lot, and Mr. All-American Douchebag headed back toward the crowd, clearly not going after her. It’s not like I can do anything to help.
But the reception was starting, and he’d bet a missing bridesmaid would mess up the plan. Judging from the pain that’d crossed Quinn’s features at whatever that yuppie had said to her, it’d be a while.
Just leave it alone. You don’t have the first clue on how to deal with a crying woman, anyway, and that one would probably just call you a jerk or accuse you of taking advantage of her pain. He took a step toward the safety of the drama-free stage and then stopped in his tracks. Damn it.
He spun around. Maybe they could make a few vampire jokes and then she’d be okay. Even as his feet moved for the parking lot, he could hardly believe he was going after her. But what was he supposed to do? Just let her cry because they wanted the same property?
A more qualified search party would probably be the wiser choice, but he knew what it was like to need to be away from everything.
He found her leaning on a silver Mercedes similar to the one her father drove. The reminder of who she was almost made him turn back, but then she glanced his way.
The dying afternoon light caught the teardrop on her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and straightened, making a good effort at an I’m-all-good front. “I…” Her voice cracked, and then she closed her eyes and shook her head.
“I saw.” He pointed his thumb back toward the festivities—the entire town square had been transformed with colorful paper lanterns and cranes, glowing lights, tables and chairs for a huge crowd, and a temporary stage. “I was making sure we were all plugged in and…I didn’t hear the fight, just could tell that there’d been one and that it hadn’t ended well.” He took another hesitant step toward her. “You okay?”
“Not really.” She cast a worried glance at the square. “There are slim-to-none odds that no one else noticed that fight, and if everyone at the reception starts talking about it, it’ll be one more time I managed to mess up a nice family event with my ‘bad attitude,’ aka, the fact that I have a mind of my own.”
“Don’t worry, I hear wedding cake is magic. The sugar coma that follows tricks people into only remembering the good—it’s how weddings continue to happen, despite the drama that inevitably goes down at them.”
A smile tried to catch hold but only made it halfway across Quinn’s lips before it lost steam.
“Plus, I really don’t think anyone else saw,” he added. “Like I said, I was back behind the stage, and all the decorations give pretty good cover from everything else.”
“The hours I spent helping arrange them must’ve given me a little good karma to work with. If only it would’ve been enough to delay that fight a bit longer.” Her lower lip quivered, and unshed tears made her eyes go glossy. “I should’ve known he was just like the rest.”
“Clearly not right for you?”
She whipped her head toward him, and he held up his hands.
“I’m just saying, I could’ve told you that. He looks like a tool and you…” He ran his gaze down the fiery red dress that matched her personality, getting a little lost in the way it clung to her body and the sexy legs that led to those crazy-tall heels—without the help she could barely clear five feet.
“I what?”
“Look like that,” he said, gesturing to her.
“Like a snob?”
Heath sighed and glanced back the way he’d come. He should’ve known after their last interaction that it’d go like this, regardless of his good intentions. “Maybe I should go.”
Quinn slumped back against the car. “Sorry. It was nice of you to check on me, and the cake sugar coma theory was really funny…I’m just experiencing a mini crisis and I’m having a harder time than usual powering through. Don’t worry, I’ll be done in a quick sec.” She sucked in a breath and let it out.
“You want me to go get Sadie?”
She shook her head and took another deep breath. Then she transformed before his eyes, blinking away the tears and pulling out a smile that made a strange sensation go through his gut, despite knowing it was fake. “Ready.”
They headed back toward the buzz of the crowd. The girl must be a pro at shoving down emotions, because no trace of her sorrow remained. It’d probably freak him out if he wasn’t too busy being intrigued by it.
“Thank you,” she said, placing her hand on his arm. The glow from the decorations lit up her dark brown eyes and the featherlight touch on his arm made his stomach tighten. Entertaining thoughts of her was a bad idea all around, even if he ignored the property bid.
In spite of that, he still found himself looking forward to their forced interaction preparing for Frontier Days more than he should.
She dropped her hand, and he couldn’t help saying, “A very pretty snob with a killer smile. For the record.”
The corners of her mouth trembled as she tried to fight the smile, but then it broke free, and now he could see the difference between the fake one and the real one. From now on, only the real one would do. “From a Neanderthal, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Touché,” he said with a laugh. Then he glanced at the stage, where Sadie and Will were scanning the crowd, most likely looking for him. “Catch you later.” He backpedaled a few steps before turning around. Right before he reached the stage, he glanced to the spot where he’d left her.
He caught her watching him and winked.
She rolled her eyes, but he got another one of her killer smiles. Little girl was trouble with a capital T.
Come to think of it, it’d been way too long since he’d been in trouble.
…
“What were you doing talking to him?”
Chichi’s stern voice cut through the happy vibes, a hot knife through butter. Quinn smothered her smile and
turned around. “Who, Heath? I was just talking to him about the band, Chichi. He plays with Sadie, see?”
Chichi glanced at the stage and frowned. Sadie grinned and waved, and his stern expression softened. While he might not always approve of Sadie’s choices—he’d literally said that before—she’d always had a way of charming people, and even the ever-serious Mr. Sakata wasn’t unfazed.
He nodded at her and then turned back to Quinn. “Make sure you remember your priorities. It doesn’t look good for you to be seen alone with someone like that, especially with your boyfriend and his family here.”
Yeah, about that… She could only imagine the discussion their breakup would cause. Chichi always thought she was too wild to hold on to a man, and she’d always been too mortified to reply that she’d lost most of them because she wouldn’t have sex with them. She and Chichi simply didn’t have that kind of relationship. Neither did she and Haha, for that matter. If it weren’t for Sadie, she’d likely implode. She always loved that despite the different decisions they’d made about having sex, Sadie never held back about that part of her life or talked to her like she was naive. Her best friend got that she’d made a decision, whereas a lot of people treated her like she was clueless about the particulars and needed shielding.
So while she definitely needed to have a lengthy discussion with her best friend about everything that’d happened with Grayson, she needed to wait until Maya was on her way to her honeymoon. For now it was time to pretend everything was butterflies and unicorns.
“Yes, Chichi. Looks like the place is getting busy. I’d better go see where I’m needed.” Quinn purposely kept her gaze straight, no looking at the stage. Her parents would have a heart attack if she brought home someone like Heath.
It’d be slightly entertaining until the disappointment set in. She was so sick of being the family failure, which was why for the rest of the reception, she also avoided Grayson. Not too hard to do, because he was clearly doing the same to her. When people asked her questions, she smiled and nodded, never letting the slam from earlier show—good thing she’d perfected faking it till she made it.
There were forced posed pictures with Grayson in them, of course, but keeping on opposite ends was easy enough. Once the car with Just Married drawn on the back window pulled away, the Rutherfords disappeared, her ex included.
At least Maya had gotten to drive away believing everything was picture-perfect—she deserved that kind of a fairy-tale ending.
The fact that the discarded decorations and overflowing trash cans made Quinn want to wax poetic about how she totally knew how they felt meant it was probably time to go home. If only she wouldn’t get accused of ditching out of her responsibilities.
Just a little longer and I can leave and have a real cry, she thought as she grabbed the guest book and cleared the table it’d been on. It wasn’t so much that she’d been super attached to Grayson—although his rejection had stung more than she would’ve guessed—but more like the idea of him. A nice guy her family liked who didn’t give her a sex ultimatum. Until he did.
If even the straitlaced “safe” guys ran at the mention of celibate dating, what chance did she have with a guy she was crazy about? She already knew, because she’d attempted to date plenty of them. It never worked, smoking-hot chemistry or supposed security. Eventually Chichi would have to recruit one of his friends’ sons to take pity on her and drag her down the aisle. Yeah, that sounded hot.
Sadie leaned on the table, placing herself in Quinn’s line of sight and crossing one ankle over the other. “What happened with the boyfriend?”
“Oh, you know. Same thing that happens every time. Did Heath tell you?”
Sadie’s eyebrows drew together. She glanced Heath’s way—he was putting his guitar case into a black truck with raised tires and a roll bar. A motorcycle was strapped in back and a gun rack hung across the rear window. The dude was country through and through.
She’d always liked country boys. There was just something about their rugged manliness that made her heart pump double time and her common sense fly right out the window.
“Earth to Quinn?” Sadie snapped her fingers in front of Quinn’s face. “I just noticed that you guys kept your distance, and obviously he’s not here now, so I figured something had happened. How does Heath know?”
“He saw the fight—didn’t hear it, thank goodness, because then I’d have to die of mortification and call it good.”
Anger flickered through Sadie’s eyes. “He really dumped you because of sex?”
“Yeah. It’s been six months. Apparently that’s supposed to be long enough to change my mind. Oh, and he brought up Mr. Sparkles, like gifting me with an expensive necklace obligated me.”
“Well, I hope you told him he could stick his present where the sun don’t shine.”
“I should’ve. I just told him I wasn’t for sale and gave it back.” Quinn sat on the edge of the table, beyond caring if she ended up with icing on her butt. “It’s never going to change, is it? I’ll go through this same cycle three hundred times and learn the same thing again and again. Guys only care about one thing.”
Sadie sighed and tipped her head. “You know that’s not true.”
“I know there are good guys out there, and I’m happy you found one. That doesn’t mean even some of the good ones are willing to wait.” The urge to wave the white flag on relationships slammed into her, draining her of her energy. “I’m too outspoken and wild in my family’s eyes, and to the rest of the world, I’m too conservative and old-fashioned. I don’t fit anywhere, and I can’t win.”
Half of the people in town thought she slept around, and the guys she’d actually dated thought she was a prude. Hard to be slutty and frigid at the same time, but she somehow pulled it off. Her frustration must’ve shown, because Sadie stepped forward and hugged her tightly.
While it didn’t magically fix everything, she’d desperately needed it.
“Think you can sneak away to the ranch?” Sadie asked. “We can get drunk and eat chocolate like we did when I was sure Royce and I’d never get back together. In a few hours, it’ll almost be like your breakup never happened.”
“Maybe I’ll sneak out of my bedroom window, too, so I can relive the glory days.”
“If you get yourself grounded, don’t go blaming me.”
Quinn laughed.
Her parents came over, the craziness of the past few days showing on their faces, but pride was there as well—they’d married off one daughter to a successful, wealthy businessman. They probably believed eventually they’d succeed in doing the same with Quinn, to the same family, even.
“Thank you for the music, Sadie,” Chichi said, and Haha echoed the sentiment.
Sadie flashed them a warm smile. “Anytime. It was my pleasure, really.”
Chichi wrapped his arm around Haha and she leaned in, letting him hold her up. They’d met through family friends. Apparently Haha was so shy and demure that it’d taken three dates before Chichi had even gotten a full sentence out of her. Her mother, Sobo Machi, had been the wildest family member before Quinn had come along, which was why it’d hurt so much when they’d lost her. Since she’d lived with them for the ten years after her husband passed away, most of Quinn’s childhood memories included her, and while Sobo Machi always tried to remain straight-faced when Quinn got grounded—yet again—she’d slipped and laughed a few times.
Instead of constant reprimanding over Quinn’s so-called rebellious nature, she’d always referred to it as “strong spirit.” She’d gotten Quinn’s humor when no one else did, and when it came to talking about her problems and frustrations, Sobo understood. Man, I miss her.
“I wish my mother was here to see this,” Haha said, apparently noticing the same absence.
“Me, too,” Quinn said. “It was a lovely wedding and ceremony—you did a great job of making it all come together.” She rolled her tight neck, her thoughts on kicking back on Sadie’s comfy couch as she u
nwound from the long day. “I’m going to head to Second Chance Ranch with Sadie and stay the night there.”
Frown lines puckered Haha’s face. No doubt she was thinking about how Sadie practically lived at the ranch, despite the fact that she and Royce weren’t married yet.
“Quinn can stay in the spare bedroom,” Sadie offered with her signature wide grin.
That didn’t seem to ease the concern, but since Quinn was now a grown woman, there wasn’t much her mother could say. Didn’t stop disapproval from oozing from her.
“I’ll be home early tomorrow morning so we can head back to Cheyenne.” With a giant hangover, most likely, but she’d wear her dark glasses and doze in the backseat. Then she’d have to deal with the office and sorting through anything Grayson might’ve left at her place, and finish axing that relationship.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to put Cheyenne in her past and make Hope Springs her future. Now she’d have to feel bad about beating out Heath for the property, but it was easier to be her weird, clashed self here. If she didn’t get away from everything, she’d go completely crazy.
She inwardly cringed just thinking about asking Chichi for time off. No need to tell him it was to get the property in Hope Springs until it was a done deal.
No, she’d cross that sucky, shard-strewn bridge when she got to it.
Chapter Five
All week long, Quinn had been looking forward to this moment. It was just after three on Friday afternoon when she pulled her car up to the Mountain Ridge Bed and Breakfast.
As luck would have it, Chichi had wanted her to do a final check on a property in Casper first thing this morning, which led nicely to heading from there to Hope Springs for the weekend.
She’d figure out how to get enough time off next week when it came around. Put it right up there with breaking the news that there wouldn’t be a second wedding involving the Rutherford family. Maya already knew. While Quinn had planned on waiting until she got back from her honeymoon to tell her, apparently Grayson had already told Steven, which meant Maya had texted to ask her side of the story. Grayson had made it sound like she didn’t care as much about him as he did about her. Possibly true, but totally spinning it to make her sound like the bad guy. And he’d had the gall to leave an apology on her voicemail the next day when she didn’t pick up, as if he hadn’t thrown her under the bus with her sister and new brother-in-law.
