Homecoming

by Lacey Baker

  She’d remained optimistic for the next two years and Quinn had devoted every moment that he wasn’t in school to making her feel as loved and cherished as a seventeen-year-old could. And she’d still died.

  It wasn’t his fault and she was right, there was absolutely nothing he could have done to change her course in life. Sure, he now had a good medical education and years of experience under his belt, but at the end of the day the final call just wasn’t his. Quinn knew that now, accepted it with each breath he was allowed to take, every sunrise and sunset he was gifted to see. He was not in control.

  Still, Quinn had prayed today would go better than the last time he’d seen Nikki. He loved her. There was no doubt in his mind about that fact now. And he planned to not only tell her this today, but to show her.

  “First and foremost, I want to tell you something and I want you to know that this is the honest truth.”

  She tried to pull away. Quinn held her still.

  “Nikki, please,” he pleaded.

  When she stopped resisting Quinn released her arm. “I love you,” he said.

  She didn’t respond.

  “That’s not something I would make up or lie about,” he continued.

  Nikki nodded. “And you just came to this realization?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I knew that last night we were together. Just like I know how bad I messed up that night.”

  “You called me another woman’s name. I would probably say that was more than messed up.”

  “It wasn’t like that.” He took a deep breath and knew how important this moment was, how his next words would either make or break his future. “I’d just found out about my grandmother’s disease. I talked to the man she’d loved these last three years at the cemetery where he was still crying for her. Yes, I was thinking about Sharane. I stood in that same cemetery twenty-one years ago crying over a disease I couldn’t understand and a girl I thought I’d love forever.

  “Should I be over that by now? Yes, I should. Am I? Yes, I’m over the love I had for Sharane. But let me tell you something, Nikki, you never get over losing someone to this disease. Especially not when it feels like it’s selecting people you love more and more frequently. Yeah, I know that’s not how it works because I’ve watched plenty of patients die, too. It never gets easy, and each time I feel every single loss I’ve ever witnessed all over again. So yes, Sharane was on my mind that night. And so was my dad and my grandmother and Mr. Riley and all the other people suffering with some form of cancer who might not make it.”

  Because he wanted to touch her again, Quinn thrust his hands into his pockets. Just a few feet away the barbecue was still going live and strong. There had to be at least a hundred people crammed into the Brockingtons’ backyard and more food than three times that number could eat. Music played from a corner where Quinn had already noticed a fully uniformed Jonah kept staring over at them.

  Nikki hadn’t moved at all. She stood in front of him, perfectly still, her eyes focused solely on him. Quinn couldn’t tell what she was thinking but her silence made it seem like she was waiting for him to either say more or walk away. Well, he wasn’t walking away, ever again.

  “I went back to Seattle because I realized that I couldn’t come to you with empty promises. If I was going to declare my love to you then dammit, I wanted to offer you everything else I had along with it.”

  He took a step toward her.

  “I resigned from the clinic. It’s not the place for me anymore. I’ve known that for a while now, but it took coming back here, seeing you and the people of Sweetland, to realize there was life outside those walls. That I could have a purpose that didn’t require me to believe I was some kind of god.”

  She blinked and looked away.

  Quinn reached out, touched a finger to her chin, turning her to face him once more.

  “I sold my house, packed up everything including Dixi, and came back to Sweetland to stay.”

  “Quinn,” she started to say.

  “Shhh,” he whispered, putting a finger to her lip. “Let me finish this. Please.”

  When she nodded, he continued.

  “I came in this morning and met with Netta Harvey—she’s Doc’s real estate agent. Apparently, he’s looking to sell his house and his practice. He and Ethel are finally going to make it official and get married, then they’re moving down to Florida.”

  “What?” she asked.

  Quinn gave a quick chuckle. “Guess that hadn’t filtered through the Sweetland gossip mill yet. Don’t tell Marabelle and Louisa they’re slipping.”

  Nikki began shaking her head. “Quinn, what are you saying to me exactly? What do you want me to do with all this information?”

  “First,” he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper. “I want you to take this receipt and file it in that folder with the tax bill. Then I want to see every bill that comes into the inn from now on. We’re never going to get behind again and we’re certainly not going to be fooled by crooked town council members.”

  She took the receipt he’d received from Liza, looked down at it then back up at him, her mouth opening to say something. He touched his fingers to her lips lightly to close them.

  “I’ll explain the rest later. For now, I want you to just listen and tell me if you hear a lie, or deceit. I know you’ve been lied to before, Nikki, and I don’t want you to feel like that with me. Everything I’ve said, everything I do by you is honestly from the heart.”

  There was silence, at least between the two of them, and Quinn began to worry. What if it wasn’t enough? What if she’d really moved on with Officer Jonah-goddamned-friendly? What if he was too late?

  “Well, you can say something now,” he told her with mild impatience.

  She blinked and tilted her head a bit.

  “Oh, sorry,” he said with a slight chuckle when he realized his fingers had been still holding her lips closed.

  Nikki cleared her throat and looked down at the receipt once more. “So let me get this straight,” she started, then shook her head as if in disbelief.

  “You moved from Seattle and plan to open a practice here in Sweetland for me? You gave up what I hear from Savannah was an excellent salary, a great home, a great car, and everything to come back here and treat things like broken toes and summer colds, just for me? That’s what you want me to believe?”

  “No, of course not,” Quinn said seriously. “I had my car shipped here.”

  She laughed. Instantly, fully and completely irresistible. The act had probably shocked her as much as it had Quinn, but it was there nonetheless and he took that as a lead. He reached out, cupped her face with both his hands.

  “I love you, Nikki. And I would have given up anything and everything to be with you. But there’s another woman that pulled me back here. She’s been trying for years to get me to come home. I hate that it took her death to knock some sense into my head, but I don’t intend to spend another day not living the life I was meant to live. And that’s a life with a beautiful wife who agrees to have my children and play with my dog and maybe, just maybe, cook baked beans like my gramma once in a while.”

  “Michelle’s the cook in the family,” Nikki said, biting her bottom lip as tearful eyes stared back at him.

  Quinn had just bent his head to kiss her, had waited so long he thought he’d die of desire if his lips didn’t touch hers, when the sirens blared.

  * * *

  Ralph, Caleb, and Brad Brockington went tearing out of the barbecue, each headed for Ralph’s big pickup truck. Jonah was next to jump into his cruiser, tires screeching as he pulled out into the street.

  Nikki and Quinn had just gotten to the front of the yard in time to see them leave.

  “What’s going on?” Quinn asked Michelle, who was standing there with a worried look on her face.

  “The Riley place is on fire,” she stated with disbelief.

  Quinn looked at Nikki and she knew. �
�I’m going with you,” she told him.

  He didn’t even argue but ran to his car, reaching in his pockets as he went and retrieving the keys so the doors would be opened when he got there. Nikki slid into the passenger seat and they, too, sped off.

  It took about two minutes before the smoke was visible in the air. Huge black funnels reaching up toward the sky. Nikki rolled down her window, the smoky smell of burning wood sifting through her nostrils. Inside her heart hammered against her chest as she thought the unthinkable.

  Another three minutes and Quinn was turning down their street, stopping behind the two fire engines and three police cars. Jumping out, they tried to get past all the people who’d gathered on the sidewalk. The house where they’d had steamed crabs and summer punch was engulfed in flames. The frame of the house was almost unrecognizable, the smoke was so thick.

  “Cover your nose and mouth,” Quinn yelled to her.

  She did as he told her, tears stinging her eyes. “Where are they?” she asked even though she knew her words were muffled.

  “I don’t know,” Quinn replied, shaking his head. He’d lifted his arm to cover the lower half of his face as well.

  The police had used yellow tape to mark a perimeter around the house, a boundary for all the spectators.

  “Stay here, I’m going to try and get closer,” Quinn told her.

  When she took a step to follow him he turned back and grabbed her by the shoulders. He shook his head adamantly. “Stay here. Do not move.”

  She didn’t, but tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched. The fire was devouring everything in its path. Glass exploded out of windows; siding or wood or she had no idea what fell from the house in burning embers onto the ground. Around her people were everywhere, some crying, some yelling. It was total chaos and yet there was a kind of serenity hovering around.

  Nikki coughed as she tried to wipe her tears and keep her nose and mouth protected from the smoke. Through blurry eyes she saw Quinn coming back toward her. “Where are they? Did they get out? Are they with Doc Stallings?”

  He didn’t answer right away and Nikki felt a clutching in her chest.

  “They think they’re still in there,” he said. But his face said they knew.

  She was already shaking her head, but in her peripheral vision she could see the old Buick that Bill Riley used to drive but lately Margaret had used. “No,” she whispered, going to her knees with overwhelming grief.

  Quinn wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. “Shhh, baby. Shhhh.”

  But there was to be no silence, not in Sweetland, not tonight.

  Chapter 24

  Two days later Ralph Brockington ruled the fire an arson. The bodies of William and Margaret Riley had been found lying in their bed fully dressed, two empty cans of kerosene on the back porch where the blaze had begun. The back and front doors dead-bolted.

  Quinn figured it had been a suicide. Bill Riley was finished living with the pain that grew more intense with each day. Margaret was finished watching her husband die. They both decided it was easier this way. As sad as it all seemed, Quinn recognized their anguish because he’d seen it so many times before with other patients.

  The memorial for William and Margaret Riley took place three days after the fire completely destroyed their property. Both William and Margaret had left instructions to be cremated so there would be no burial to follow as there was with Gramma.

  Still, Quinn sat in the fifth row of pews inside Redeemer’s Baptist Church, once more listening to Brother Thurgood Hemsley playing a somber hymnal on the organ. Behind him were the twelve women and three men that Michelle had told him made up the entire mass choir for the church, each of them looking as old as the building itself.

  In the pulpit the Reverend Ben Ellersby spoke in a quiet tone, asking blessings upon Bill Jr. and Katie Riley as they sat in the first row, both bent over in grief. Quinn watched them as the ushers hovered close with boxes of tissues in one hand, quiet consolations on their lips. He wondered if it was guilt instead of solely grief that kept them both bent forward. They hadn’t looked at anyone at all today, their faces always cast down or buried in tissue. Quinn knew for a fact that Margaret had called both her children after Bill’s walking incident; he’d heard her make the calls himself. And he was certain that the children already knew of their father’s ailment. The day after they’d had the crabs with Bill and Margaret, Quinn had done something he’d never done in his entire career as a doctor. He went against a patient’s wishes and called Bill Jr. and Katie himself. Despite their father’s stance that they had their own busy lives to lead and he didn’t want to bother them, Quinn had thought they should be there with their father in his last days. He knew Bill wouldn’t live long and he’d told both his children that. And yet they hadn’t arrived until the morning after the fire. They’d come too late, just as he had with Gramma.

  Quinn recognized the next hymn Mr. Hemsley played as the Reverend Ellersby closed out the program. He hummed and looked down as Nikki took his hand in hers. She’d been sitting right beside him, with Michelle and Raine on the other side of her. As they processed out of the church he thought that they hadn’t had a moment alone since the fire. As it was with the people of Sweetland, and just as they’d done with Gramma, all the women pitched in and cooked, taking dishes and beverages over to the family who’d suffered the loss. Unfortunately, the Riley home wasn’t available. So Michelle had invited Bill Jr. and Katie to stay at the inn. Each day Quinn had been up early helping Michelle in the kitchen, or helping Nikki see to the people filing in and out of the place. Pulling double duty they also walked all the dogs, fed them, and made sure they all had exercise time as Parker still wasn’t 100 percent on his feet. Raine and Michelle were supervising all the food coming in and cooking their own for the restaurant, so they could barely make it out of the kitchen to take bathroom breaks.

  When they arrived back at the house Quinn watched Bill Jr. and Katie go straight to their rooms.

  “Ungrateful little brats,” Savannah, who had stayed at the inn to take care of the guests who had just checked in that morning, said with a frown. “They haven’t thanked any of us since they’ve been here.”

  “They’re grieving, Savannah,” Raine commented with a sigh.

  “They’re spoiled and inconsiderate, that’s what they are,” she said in a huff and walked away.

  “She doesn’t look in the mirror often, does she?” Michelle asked with a chuckle.

  Raine shook her head. “I think she looks in the mirror too much and that’s her problem.”

  “I’ll help you two put all that leftover food into containers,” Nikki offered, moving away from Quinn’s side.

  “No, that’s okay. It’s not that much. Raine and I can manage,” Michelle told her. “You and Quinn go take a rest; you’ve been running for the last few days.”

  “So have you,” Quinn stated. “Let us help in the kitchen. That way we’ll finish sooner and all of us can take a rest.”

  Michelle was shaking her head. “No. We’ll do it. You two go.”

  Quinn was too tired and knew Michelle’s stubborn streak too well to argue. Taking Nikki’s hand, he led her out the door they’d just come in and down the porch steps. He didn’t stop walking until they were at the gazebo. He turned and sat on the step, pulling her down onto his lap and hugging her tightly.

  “I should have come back sooner. Those kids should have come back sooner,” he whispered.

  “We can’t undo the past,” she told him, rubbing her hands up and down his back. “All we can do is work toward a better future.”

  Quinn nodded and then pulled away so he could look into her eyes. “Tomorrow is not promised to any of us. So I don’t want to waste any more time. I want you to be my future, Nikki. I want to marry you and raise children with you. I want it all, with you.”

  For a few seconds she simply stared at him. Her mind had gone completely blank. Well, not completely. Scenes played in her head like
a movie trailer.

  Quinn standing in a white tuxedo looking as handsome as any man she’d ever seen in her life. Beside him Parker and Preston were dressed in white as well. They were standing under the gazebo. She walked down a white runner filled with red, pink, and white rose petals from Ms. Vera’s garden, toward Quinn. Cordy, Savannah, Michelle, and Raine stood opposite Quinn and his brothers, dressed in dresses a shade of pink so pale it almost looked white. The Reverend Ellersby stood between them, a Bible in his hand, waiting patiently for her.

  Her arm was tucked tightly in her father’s; Caleb and Brad had previously escorted her mother to a seat in the first row of white chairs that had been rented for this event. It was her dream wedding, in her dream location, with her dream man. And it was perfect.

  “Hey, you still with me?” Quinn asked, dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose.

  “Yes, I’m still with you,” she said, lifting a finger to trace along his cheek. “I’ll always be with you, Quinn. And I’ll love you and marry you and raise children with you.”

  Quinn smiled, his gaze holding hers until she was smiling right along with him. “Could you do something else first?” he asked her.

  “What?”

  “Kiss me?”

  She laughed. “Of course.”

  And this time when their lips touched it was more than magical, more than anything either of them had ever experienced. It was a real, true homecoming.

  The Silver Spoon Recipes

  Almost Heaven Almond Pound Cake

  3 cups all-purpose flour