by Rachel Hanna
“Mom?” Kelly said as she knocked on the door and it opened on its own. She found her mother sitting on the sofa, drinking a beer and visibly shaking. “Mom, look at me.”
“I can’t believe she did it. I was trying to help her, be a mother to her. She stole everything I had. Every dime I have in my account is gone. She emptied it and then took off. How could she do that to me? She’s my daughter.”
“We need to call the police,” Kelly said, fumbling to get her cell phone out of her purse. Her mother reached over and grabbed her hand.
“No. I’m not calling the police.”
“You’re kidding me, right? She’s a thief. She needs to be reported and caught.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“You can’t be serious. You’re going to let her get away with this? She took everything you have. She scammed you, plain and simple. She’s probably doing this to other people too. We have to let somebody know,” Kelly said again.
“I made her that way, Kelly. This is just karma coming back to bite me in the butt.” Edie took a long sip of her beer and leaned back on the sofa, letting out a sarcastic laugh. “I don’t even know if she was ever married to the French guy. She was probably just over there scamming people.”
“So, I guess you need to come home with me then?” Kelly said, a bit of hopefulness in her voice which was surprising even to her.
“Well, I can’t stay here. Rent is due in three days and I don’t have the money to pay it. I guess I’m going to have to get a job.”
“I know of some openings in Whiskey Ridge,” Kelly said with a smile. “In fact, I know that the coffee shop is hiring as well as the bookstore.”
“You’d let me move back in with you?” Edie asked, the sound of surprise plainly evident in her voice.
“Of course I was, Mother. I told you, I want a second chance for us to really be mother and daughter but we have to have some ground rules.”
“Ground rules? Here we go again… You and your tightly wound personality…”
“That’s ground rule number one. You can’t be criticizing me all the time. I’m a grown woman with my own way of doing things, so you’re going to have to respect me and in return, I will respect you.”
“Fine. Ground rule number two is that you’ll stop dredging up the past at any opportunity. I know I screwed up. I’ve apologized, and I’d like to be able to move on without that always hanging over my head,” her mother said.
“I can accept that. Ground rule number three is that you cannot start hoarding again. We will keep Gertrude on to do the basic cleaning once a week, but you’re going to have to make an effort not to junk up your room. I don’t want a repeat of what happened to your house.”
“It’s a deal.”
With that, Kelly made some phone calls to her mother’s landlord and helped her pack to head back to Whiskey Ridge. Life was never going to be the same. In fact, it was probably going to be chaotic and crazy and not the quiet serenity she’d been used to for so many years. And right now, that sounded incredibly perfect.
Chapter 13
As they drove through the dark Georgia night, thoughts flew through Kelly’s mind. Everything had changed in the last few months. All of the ways she thought her life would be at this point were totally thrown to the wind.
She had a relationship that she really wanted, but now it might be gone. She had independence, but now her mother would be living with her long-term. The only stability she really had was her business, and now she wanted to hide from going there just to avoid an uncomfortable situation with Quinn.
Her life, in a word, was in upheaval.
“So where’s your boyfriend?” her mother asked as they got closer to Whiskey Ridge.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Kelly said staring at the road in front of her.
“Okay, your male companion. Why didn’t he come with you tonight?”
“We’re just fellow tenants in a building, Mom. Nothing else.”
“I don’t believe that. Spill it. What’s going on?” her mother urged.
“I really don’t want to talk about it tonight.” She was tired, both mentally and emotionally, and she was still reeling from thoughts of strangling her sister, so having a long drawn-out discussion about Quinn wasn’t something she wanted to do. Yet, she knew she was about to do it. Her mother was a bulldog that way.
“You know, I’ve been on this earth for quite some time. I might just have a little bit of advice to offer if you would actually tell me what’s going on.”
“Fine. As you know, his wife died over a year ago. I found out that he had been keeping something from me. The cross erected at the top of my driveway? That was his wife. She’s the one who died in a car accident in front of my house and he never told me.”
“So?” her mother said that she reached into her handbag for some lip gloss.
“So? So he lied to me. He was spending all kinds of time with me and even taking me out on dates, but he never told me. Don’t you think that’s pretty important?”
“Well, what I think is that you are being awfully self-centered in this situation, my dear.”
“Thanks a lot! My girlfriends all agree with me. He shouldn’t have kept that a secret.”
“Then they’re all wrong.” Edie had a way of cutting right to the chase.
“Oh really? And why do you say that?” Kelly really was interested in hearing what her mother had to say. Her viewpoint on things was always unique, if not entertaining.
“Let me ask you this – when should he have told you?”
“I don’t know… Maybe during our first date or after our first kiss or before our first kiss… I’m not sure, but he should’ve told me.”
“And what makes you think he wasn’t going to tell you soon?”
“I have no idea when or if he was ever going to tell me.”
“Kelly, you’ve never been married. You’ve never had a relationship that was so complicated, except for maybe your relationship with me. So, when you first meet people, do you immediately launch into your entire history and talk about all of those things that embarrass you about your upbringing?”
“Of course not. I’m not telling that stuff to anybody that isn’t going to remain in my life for a long time. It’s hard for me to trust people and…” Suddenly, she got the point. Maybe he just didn’t trust her enough or know her quite well enough to admit what had happened on the day his wife died and where she died. Maybe he had needed more time and instead of giving that to him, she had pushed and criticized.
“I think you see where I’m going with this. If you care about him, and I know that you do, then maybe you have to just give him some time to explain. Maybe you just have to leave some space open for people not to be perfect.”
She couldn’t believe that what her mother had just said was life-changing. It was true. She didn’t leave space for people to be imperfect. She expected everyone to fall in line with her vision of what life was supposed to be like. And now, she had to make things right with Quinn whatever that meant.
* * *
By the time she had gotten her mother settled, it was after midnight and Kelly was exhausted. But she needed to make things right. And she couldn’t wait a moment longer, so she jumped in her car and headed towards Quinn’s house.
As she drove up the long driveway, she worried that he might come outside and shoot her thinking someone was breaking in, so she sent him a quick text message and asked him to come outside. He probably thought she was a lunatic showing up at his house after midnight, but she knew she’d never be able to sleep until she hashed things out with them.
He walked outside, wearing only a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and no shirt. It was almost more than her eyes could take.
“Hi,” she said as she walked toward him. “Before you say anything, I know that it’s crazy for me to be here so late at night and I hope I didn’t wake you up.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.
“Me
either. In fact, I just got back from bringing my mother home from Atlanta… again.”
“What? What happened?”
“Long story, but let’s just say that my sister ran off with everything my mother had including all of her money in her bank account.”
“Oh no… So she’s living with you again?”
“Yes, but I’m okay with it. We set some ground rules, and I feel really good about it. I think it’s going to be nice to have a second chance.”
“Second chances are good. I’m happy for you.” There was such a sadness in his voice, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of his wife or what had happened to their brand-new, budding relationship.
“I came here tonight to apologize for pushing you. I was only thinking about myself, and I should’ve realized that maybe you’re dealing with your own stuff. I’ve never lost anyone who’s close to me and I have no idea what you’re going through. I just wanted you to know that.”
“Kelly, I want you to know I wasn’t keeping anything from you because I was using you in some way. In fact, I tried not to come to your house a lot because it brought about a terrible reminder for me. I came to your house because I wanted to see you despite the pain it caused me to pass that memorial. But, I just needed some more time to deal with it. I need to be honest with you about the story leading up to her crash.”
“Quinn, you don’t have to tell me anything right now. You don’t owe me anything.”
He walked toward her and put his hands on her upper arms. “I do owe you something. I never expected to feel this way about another woman, and certainly not the woman who lives on the property where my wife died. This has all been really confusing for me, but I know that I want to move forward… with you. That is if you’re still interested?”
She looked up at him, rose up on her tippy toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I absolutely want to move forward with you. And I want to be here for you no matter what, so you can trust me. No pressure.”
“Come inside,” he said, sliding his arm around her and walking her to the front door. The house was dark except for one lamp on in the living room. She sat down on the sofa, and he sat across from her on the coffee table. She could tell that he was gearing up to give her the full story, and he was full of anxiety already.
“You don’t have to do this tonight. Sleep. We can talk about this later…” she said, trying to give him an out but he shook his head.
“I need to do this now.” She nodded her head in agreement and held both of his hands. “I told you that Penny and I were having marital issues for a long time. We talked about divorce, and then we’d get back together. I just hated the thought of giving up on a marriage. The day before she died, I asked for a divorce. I found out that she was cheating on me, and that was just the last straw.”
“So why was she in Whiskey Ridge?”
“Her uncle is an attorney, and he lives about ten minutes from here. That morning, she had come by my karate studio and we argued about money and property and the fact that she cheated on me. So when she left me, she was pretty upset. Then she called me when she got into Whiskey Ridge and admitted she was pregnant with the guy’s kid. I knew it wasn’t mine because we weren’t… well, you know… for a long time because things were so bad. She said she had broken it off with the guy she was cheating with and would be devoted to me, but I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t raise this guy’s child. The trust was gone, and I said no. For the first time in our relationship, I said no. She was really upset and hung up on me. The next call I got was from the local police department…”
A stray tear rolled down his cheek as he told the story, and Kelly reached up and wiped it away. She stood up and then sat on his lap and hugged him. He buried his face in her shoulder, and she could feel the wetness of his tears through her shirt. This man, this rugged and handsome man, had been beating himself up with guilt for over a year now.
“Quinn,” she said, her mouth pressed against his ear, “it wasn’t your fault.”
“I know that now,” he said, sitting up and looking at her. “But it took me a long time to believe that. And when I realized that you lived on the spot where she died, it was a lot to take in.”
“It must’ve been so hard for you, that night that you brought me home with my mother. I can’t imagine what you must’ve thought when you realized where I lived.”
“It was a shock, for sure. But there was a part of me wondering if it was also a sign that sometimes an ending can also be the beginning.”
She wasn’t sure that she had ever heard something more beautiful come from anyone’s lips. Sometimes, endings were beginnings. The ending of her relationship with Rio. The ending of her relationship with her sister. Each of those occurrences had led to new beginnings. She had a new beginning with her mother and now she had a new beginning with Quinn, at least she hoped so.
“I have to ask you something,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Is it going to be too hard to be with me knowing where I live?”
“No. Not anymore. I grieved the loss of the relationship I once had with my wife a long time ago. And sometimes I go to the marker to honor that in some way, I guess. And maybe I felt guilty, but I don’t anymore. I can’t bring her back, and I can’t change what happened, but I can start over. I can learn to trust again and open myself up to new possibilities.” He pushed a stray hair out of her eyes.
“And could one of those new possibilities be with me?” Kelly asked with a smile. When his lips met hers, she had her answer.
“I love you, Kelly Cole, you stiletto-wearing-tightly-wound chick,” he said with a smile. “But you still have to keep those heels off my floor.”
“And I love you, Quinn Maverick, you loud-mouthed-knight-in-shining-armor terrible fisherman,” she said giggling.
With that, he swept her up into his arms and straight down the hall into his bedroom where he would spend time showing her exactly all of the things he was good at even if fishing wasn’t one of them.
Also by Rachel Hanna
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The January Cove Series:
The One For Me (Book 1)
Loving Tessa (Book 2)
Falling For You (Book 3)
Finding Love (Book 4)
All I Need (Book 5)
Secrets and Soulmates (Book 6)
Get Books 1-5 in a Box Set!
Wrecked Series:
Wrecked Book 1
Wrecked Book 2
Wrecked Book 3
Wrecked Book 4
Wrecked Book 5
Get the whole series in a Box Set!
The Coulter Brothers Series:
Lost and Found
Breaking Away
Night and Day
Ruined Series:
Ruined Book 1
Ruined Book 2
Whiskey Ridge Series:
Starting Over (Book 1)
Stand Alone Books:
Broken (New Adult Romance)
Snow Jam
A Cowboy for Christmas
Christmas In Magnolia Cove
Messages
Second Chance
Safe
Running Hot
One More Try
Unbreakable
Warwoman
Copyright © 2015 by Rachel Hanna
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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