“You. Your honesty. Your cookies. Your…I don’t know, your down-to-earthness. Is that a word?”
“I don’t think so.” She smiled, even though she realized tears were coursing down her cheeks again. Surely her tear ducts should have dried up by now.
He used his thumbs to wipe her tears. “I’ve made you cry.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve made myself cry. I’m used to people disappearing on me, Quinn. My mother did. My father did. I guess I just assumed you did, too.”
“I’m here.” He bowed and kissed her brow. “I’ll never disappear from you, Maeve. How can I disappear? When I’m with you…” He brushed her forehead with a kiss. “This is home. You’re my home.”
She leaned into him, savoring the strength of his arms around her. “Did you mean that—what you said before?”
“About wanting your cookies? Yes.”
“The other thing.”
“That I love you?” He kissed her again, this time a light kiss on her lips. “Yeah. I meant that.”
“I love you, too.”
“Then we’re both home,” he said, his arms strong and secure around her.
She sank against him, knowing that the tears dampening her cheeks now were happy tears. She was home. Quinn’s embrace was home.
She held him close, treasuring this feeling of security, of safety, of belonging. Thank you, Harry, she thought with a contented sigh. Thank you for bringing me home.
***
The Inheritance Series is a collection of individual novels linked by the will of Harold Hopewell. Billionaire Harold Hopewell traveled the world, encountering people and letting their stories touch him. In death, he is giving back, leaving an unusual will filled with life-altering bequests to the people he met along the way. Read The Inheritance Series, and let their stories touch you.
***
About the Author
Judith Arnold is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than ninety published novels. A New York native, she currently lives in New England, where she indulges in her passions for jogging, dark chocolate, good music, good wine and good books. She is married and the mother of two sons.
For more information about Judith, or to contact her, please visit her website. Feel free to check out her other books and sign up for her newsletter.
If you enjoyed Take the Long Way Home, I hope you will consider posting a review of it online. Thank you!
Don’t miss the other books in the Magic Jukebox series:
Changes
Antiques dealer Diana Simms is engaged to her longtime boyfriend when she finds herself inside the Faulk Street Tavern. The song “Changes” emerges from the jukebox and casts its spell on her. It also captivates Nick Fiore, a local boy who’s arrived at adulthood the hard way, after a tour through the juvenile justice system. Now he’s dedicated his life to helping other troubled kids. He has no business even looking at a beautiful, well-bred woman wearing a diamond engagement ring. But once they’re bewitched by the jukebox, he and Diana must change their lives, their goals, their dreams and their hearts.
True Colors
When she finds herself homeless, artist Emma Glendon accepts the invitation of her best friend to share a rental house in Brogan’s Point. But their absentee landlord, Nick Tarloff, has come to town from his home in San Francisco to sell the house, which will mean evicting his tenants. Nick is a high-tech brainiac and a self-made millionnaire. Emma is a painter and a free spirit. They have nothing in common—except the jukebox, which plays “True Colors” and forces them to recognize their own true colors, colors that can match and blend magnificently, if the magic of the jukebox has its way.
Wild Thing
Monica Reinhart is a good girl. A hometown girl. After college, she returned to Brogan’s Point to help run the family business, an oceanfront inn. She’s never done a wild thing in her life. When Ty Cronin sails into town, his wildness intrigues her. When the jukebox plays “Wild Thing,” that wildness infects her, and soon she finds herself doing things she never would have imagined. But Ty could be big trouble. She hardly knows him. She mustn’t trust him. Yet once she’s taken a walk on the wild side with him, how can she go back to being a good hometown girl?
Heat Wave
Caleb Solomon’s office air conditioner is on the fritz. Although not his choice, he winds up meeting with a difficult but profitable client in the pleasant chill of the air-conditioned Faulk Street Tavern. It’s there that high school teacher Meredith Benoit finds him. Due to a silly prank, her job and her reputation are in jeopardy. She needs a lawyer, fast. But the Magic Jukebox starts playing “Heat Wave,” and a hot wave of passion crashes over Caleb and Meredith, catching them in its undertow and carrying them off.
Moondance
Cory Malone and Talia Roszik married as teenagers after Talia became pregnant. Their marriage didn’t last, but their love for their daughter did. Fifteen years after their divorce, Wendy Malone is graduating from high school, and Cory has traveled to Brogan’s Point for the occasion. But Cory’s and Talia’s plans—and their emotions—are thrown into turmoil when they hear the Magic Jukebox play “Moondance.” Can a single song make them forget all the hurt and rediscover the love that once brought them together?
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