Quinn felt a wave of genuine sympathy roll over her. “Can he get help?”
“Of course he can. The question is will he, and the answer is no, at least not for me.”
“You’ve talked to him?” Quinn asked.
Lena just looked out at the water.
“You haven’t talked to him,” Quinn said.
“Look, if a guy can’t read my mind and figure out my admittedly mercurial moods, then he’s not for me.”
“You’re scared,” Quinn said. Marveled. “Holy shit, who would’ve guessed that the badass Lena is running scared?”
“Shut up,” Lena said without much heat.
Which meant she was right. “So what’s this thing with Mick then? Just a way to make Boomer feel jealous so he’ll kick it into gear?”
“Maybe I’m trying to save Mick from making a mistake with a spoiled city girl.”
“Okay. Good talk.” Quinn stood up, brushed herself off, and turned toward her car.
“Now who’s chicken?”
“Still you!” Quinn yelled back. “Talk to Boomer!”
MICK CAME BACK into Wildstone on Monday for the night’s bimonthly city council meeting. It turned out to be a crowded affair. There wasn’t a lot to do here at night. Drinking at the Whiskey River, making out on the dunes, hitting the occasional moonlight surf contest . . . and going to Wildstone city council meetings.
Just about everyone in town was there. His mom. Lena. Greta and Trinee.
But not Quinn, which he knew because he searched the crowd. He didn’t acknowledge the disappointment. She wouldn’t be here, of course she wouldn’t, she wasn’t staying in town.
He did enjoy the surprise on city manager Tom Nichols’s face when he spotted Mick in the audience.
The meeting droned on, but when the time was appropriate and people were allowed to speak or ask questions, Mick stood up. He asked several questions, all pertaining to the outside contracting of construction projects and other jobs.
“This isn’t the time or place—” Tom began, but several other people stood up to join Mick, including some of the local businessmen Mick had been talking to: Lonnie and Cruz Rodriguez, Rick Espy, and Tyler Coronado, among others.
“Isn’t it?” Lonnie Rodriguez asked. “I’ve been asking you all year and got nowhere.”
More people stood up, and as the attendees got riled up and more assertive, their city manager got less polite. The mayor, Camille Olsen, an elected official in her last term, tried to restore order and failed, finally gesturing for Mick to go on and finish with his question.
“We’d like specifics for what’s being done to attract visitors and boost the local economy,” he said.
This was followed by a lot of vocal agreement. Everyone wanted to know what was being done.
“How is this your business?” Tom asked. “You don’t even live here anymore.”
“He bought property,” Lonnie Rodriguez said. “Mine and the winery. And maybe the B and B too, so it’s very much his business.”
Mick knew better than to think anything could remain quiet in Wildstone, but he wasn’t thrilled about this public statement of his business dealings. Everyone, including his mom, was suddenly looking at him, reading too much into it. “I’m not a local anymore,” he emphasized. “But I do have a vested interest, same as everyone else.”
Tom spouted some well-worded verbiage that didn’t really answer anything, and right after that the mayor took back control and closed the meeting.
Afterward, Mick’s mom hugged him. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d bought property here in Wildstone?” she asked, looking thrilled.
“I didn’t want you to make too much of it.”
“Too late,” she said, smiling big.
Mick drove her home and then, feeling restless, he took to the streets again. He ended up at the bluffs with Coop and was watching the waves by moonlight when a figure came close and sat next to him.
Quinn.
Chapter 29
I hate the feeling when you’re sad and you have no idea why but you just are.
—from “The Mixed-Up Files of Tilly Adams’s Journal”
Quinn had been quietly walking the bluffs, taking in the night and trying to clear her head when she’d seen Mick and Coop arrive.
Coop bounded over to her, all floppy ears, excited drool, and wide smile.
His owner was more subdued, but there was a light in his eyes that said he was just as excited to see her as Coop, and something went a little squishy in her chest.
Coop climbed into her arms and sat himself on her lap like he’d been born there, and just panted happily.
Mick shook his head at his dog. “What are you doing here?”
“I come here sometimes,” she said. “When I need to think. It was my first stop in Wildstone, if you’ll remember.”
“I remember.”
She smiled. Her panic attack at being here seemed so long ago now. “It’s my spot.”
“We have the same spot.” He looked at her. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too. You’ve been avoiding me.”
“Giving you time to think,” he said.
Her heart melted and she leaned into him, setting her head on his shoulder. “I missed you,” she said softly, and felt his arm come around her.
“Missed you too,” he said in a voice that told her he meant it.
She was quiet for a moment, and so was he. Then she said, “According to the gossip mill, you’re moving home to Wildstone and you’re still buying up properties.”
He snorted. “Don’t believe everything you hear. In fact, don’t believe anything you hear.”
“But you did buy some properties when they were in trouble.”
“Because they were a good, solid investment,” he said.
Her smile was wry. “In Wildstone? I think we both know that’s not necessarily true. Maybe you were meant to come back here.” She paused. “And stay.”
“I bought these properties because I hate how the town is being managed and I don’t want to see good people go down. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be a local—something you of all people should understand. You’re staying here for now but you’re temporary too.”
True. “It’s hard to make any kind of personal decision because I’m making it for two.”
“Is it?” he asked. “Or is the hard part following your heart when you no longer trust it?”
Her gaze flew to his as she felt the words echo deep in her heart.
“Quinn,” he said with such terrifying gentleness that her throat burned. “You’ve gone a long time without letting your heart rule.”
“Two years,” she whispered back.
“You’re fighting your own nature.”
“Which is what?” she asked, and she wasn’t kidding. She really wanted to know.
He nudged Coop out of her lap.
Coop snorted his displeasure but turned in a circle and plopped at their feet.
Mick moved in, holding Quinn’s gaze. “To feel,” he said quietly. “You’re fighting your own nature to feel.”
Oh, God. That was true too. She’d held back her emotions and she’d gotten good at it, but ever since coming to Wildstone, it had been nothing but a flood of feels.
“You’ve also held back your own nature to love,” he said.