by Anne Harper
Stopping at the restaurant for some food on Valentine’s Day hadn’t been a decision that Quinn thought would have any consequences, other than killing his hunger. He’d walked into the place, book under his arm, and held back his opinions on the tacky decorations in pink and red. Valentine’s Day wasn’t for him, it barely had been before his marriage and divorce, and it certainly hadn’t carried over afterward.
But then his attention, like everyone’s in the restaurant, had attached to the woman, pouring rainwater and frustration, at the host counter. A beautiful woman who had, even in her dismay, seemed to brighten up the entire room. She was electric, and it was hard to look away from that kind of energy. Not only had Quinn listened to her speech, he’d found himself sympathizing with it and wholly intrigued by the woman herself.
So Quinn had tried to be kind. He’d tried to help.
Had he still been trying to be kind when he agreed to take the sweetheart couple picture?
When she kissed him…and when he kissed her back?
These questions had been on a loop since he’d left the restaurant, and the woman, behind. Trying not to think about kissing Antonella Bennett was, apparently, like trying to find a car that had a CD player.
Dang near impossible.
You could have done more of that had you asked for her number, the voice of reason said in his head. Instead you ran off with super speed like one of Owen’s beloved superheroes.
Quinn sighed.
He just shouldn’t have kissed her, he decided. Not when he was on the way to a new start. A new life. One he wanted to be careful and cautious with for the sake of his son. Letting go, for a picture and a kiss, wasn’t good for Quinn’s plan, long- or short-term. He was leaving everything he knew behind in pursuit of something more stable and reliable. Kissing beautiful strangers during the transition? A move he shouldn’t have made.
Yet, it had happened and all he could do when his senses came back to him was pull the mental ripcord and hurry to even land again.
Though he could admit in hindsight that maybe he’d done that too fast. His refusal of the picture and then superhero-worthy escape could have been handled a little more smoothly.
Valentine’s Day just didn’t seem like it would ever be his holiday.
When he finally rolled into Arbor Bay that night, it was dark and quiet and a godsend.
Then he got lost and had to call and wake up Donavon.
“I think I’m missing a step,” he’d told the older man, looking at the paper he’d scribbled directions on. “Where do I go after I turn at Longview toward the old church?”
Donavon Robertson, a friend of Quinn’s father, was a businessman through and through. He had wealth, local fame, and a penchant for fast- and sweet-talking. On the flip of a dime he could go from the charming man who’d sold you beans to the quick lawyer who postured that you hadn’t read the fine print and if the beans weren’t making a beanstalk, then that was on you. He wasn’t Quinn’s favorite person, but Quinn knew that he himself wasn’t most people’s favorite person, either, so their friendly acquaintanceship worked out.
“I’ve never met someone your age who’s such a pain in the ass technophobe,” Donavon had said with a laugh. “You’re supposed to leave that to us in our sixties and above. Not be a thirty-four-year-old Luddite.”
Quinn had rolled his eyes.
“Technophobe. Luddite. Someone’s been talking to my ex-wife.”
That had gotten Donavon going. He’d laughed again then helped direct Quinn to his main reason for coming to Arbor Bay.
A new house.
A new start.
“Remember, you said you were okay with it being tiny,” Donavon had reminded him after he’d reached his destination. “Like teeny tiny.”
“It’ll work. I don’t need much right now.”
Donavon had snorted. “One of the reasons I like you so much.”
They’d ended their convo without any fuss, and Quinn had been reacquainted with his new home that he’d only seen once before.
“It’ll more than do,” he’d told the night air.
But, where he’d lucked out in accommodations, he found himself wanting at his new job the next day.
The moment he’d walked through Heart in Hand’s front door, he was greeted by a bustling, blushing young woman with a handful of excuses for why the only other two employees were late. Then she’d shown him his new office, which was a damn mess. Like a bomb had gone off and then something had tried to burrow in the aftermath.
“I need a big picture guy who doesn’t make waves and you need a get out of the city free card. I can swing that for you, and all you have to do in return is a job you’re already good at. Come on, I wouldn’t steer you wrong. This’ll be easy peasy.”
Donavon’s words were still ringing in Quinn’s ears as he tried to make sense of the stack of papers scattered across the desk. He’d already looked in the filing cabinets behind it.
They were empty.
Because, as Quinn had quickly learned, Ron James had been as organized as a wad of mud.
Quinn grumbled, cussed a little, grumbled a little more, and was about to do a stand up and grumble when a woman’s voice, and the woman herself, barreled right on through the open office door.
“My savior in the flesh!”
Quinn’s mouth promptly dropped open.
Nell.
The loud, ranting young woman who had ridden shotgun in his thoughts off and on for the last week.
The woman he never thought he’d see again.
“A. Bennett,” he said, as if he was reading the employee list off for the first time. “Antonella Bennett.”
They were a few hours’ drive away from the restaurant where they’d met, so there’d been no reason to think A. Bennett was actually Nell and that Nell would be bursting through his office door as an employee, of all things. Still, he felt like a total child.
Not least of all because he couldn’t stop staring.
Nell was beautiful. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Wild curls, a light brown complexion that made her dark eyes feel warm, curves that showed off the simple blouse and slacks she wore like they were a masterpiece, and red painted lips that were a siren’s song.
Quinn might have caught himself daydreaming about her off and on, but a what if was a whole lot different than seeing the star of the fantasy standing in front of your desk.
He tried to clear his throat, but the sound turned into more of a cough. Nell didn’t seem to mind it and continued in her disbelief. Her words were fast to the point of stumbling into each other as they rushed out.
“You were coming here when you left the restaurant? To Arbor Bay?”
He nodded and stood, trying to regain composure.
“Just to drop off most of my stuff in a storage unit until I could move into my new place. I just got back into town last night.”
Nell shook her head and laughed.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” she said.
Quinn’s mind immediately went to the kiss she’d planted on him—him now being her new boss—but she was quick to continue and clarify.
“If I’d known I was about to make a fool of myself in front of a colleague, I would have saved my rant about love for another day.”
Quinn normally would have grinned. Teased her a little, joked a little more, but what he would do outside of work and what he would do on the clock were warring with each other. Personal life versus professional life.
On the one side, Quinn took pride in his work. If he was given a job, he did it to the best of his abilities. Keeping that job and the personal side of life separate were important for him. He’d met his ex-wife Deborah at his last job before she had become a marketing guru for a prominent tech company and, well, now she was his ex and he’d had to leave the city, i
n part, to distance himself from what was. He didn’t want to do that again. Not when he was making a new start for him and his boy. Plus, one reason he had been hired was because of a former scandal that had started inside Heart in Hand. An affair. One that Donavon had been more than angry about.
But the Quinn outside of work? He wanted to grin at Nell, make a joke about fate, and maybe flirt a little. Possibly even ask her out for a drink since they’d already had a meal together and, well, kissed like they did in the movies.
Now, though? Well, Quinn’s personal life and work life were standing in front of him looking downright beautiful.
With a giant Don’t You Dare neon sign blinking over her head.
Because, not only was he her boss and he needed his new start, but the employee sheet had told him another fun fact about A. Bennett.
She was twenty-four.
Ten years younger than him. Not the biggest deal, but when it was added to the staunch no-dating-anyone-within-Heart-in-Hand policy, it made him feel even more uneasy. Though, again, the policy made a lot of sense if Quinn was being honest. Donavon had made sure to spell out his new change after Quinn’s predecessor had run off with a guest.
“Work ethic, charm, and good sense rarely win out against a scandal,” Donavon had told him. “Ron and his lady might be happy now, but I don’t want anything close to a repeat.”
Quinn couldn’t argue that, even now with the beautiful woman standing in front of him.
Whatever attraction he thought he might have for her, he was going to have to bury it.
Nell Bennett was off limits.
And that was better for everyone.
So, instead of being personable, Quinn fell into prickly.
“Well, now that you don’t have to worry about men, at least there’s nothing that can distract you and make you late for work again.”
Nell’s polite smile flipped. Her eyebrow flew high.
The same look that she’d given him after he’d declined his picture.
Quinn was sure if she could have hit him with something and gotten away with it, she would have. Thankfully, before either the hit came or he dug himself in deeper, Tallahassee hurried up the hallway.
“Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a client out in the lobby asking for Nell.” Tallahassee gave the woman a quick look. “It’s Eric Waller. He’s got roses for you.”
Nell groaned and turned to Quinn.
“Well, Boss, so much for avoiding distractions, huh?”
Before he could say a word, Nell stalked off.
Quinn couldn’t help but watch after her.
Yeah. So much for avoiding distractions.
Chapter Three
Eric Waller had a lot of talk and not much of a walk. That’s how Nell had always thought of him, especially when they were sixteen. He was all confidence and little to no self-awareness. He also was used to getting what he wanted, so when he didn’t, he had a bit of a hissy fit. Nell knew this by gossip and by experience. When she hurried into the main room of Heart in Hand, she saw the flowers first and then the boy she’d gone to her junior Homecoming dance with second.
“Eric,” she greeted, smile tight. “What are you doing here?”
Eric thrust a bouquet of roses at her with a glint in his eye like he’d already won whatever prize he’d come for. He worked at the cell phone store off Main and was still wearing his name tag on his button-up.
“I just thought I’d stop by and treat one of my favorite people to some flowers,” he said, not at all trying to keep his voice at a normal volume.
Nell had to pull her eyebrow back down as soon as it shot up.
“I didn’t know I was one of your favorite people.” She took the bouquet with a good amount of awkwardness climbing up her body like a kid on a jungle gym.
“Are you kidding me? Just the other day, I was thinking about how much fun we had junior year and how maybe we could keep that fun going.”
There was nine years between then and now, but Nell didn’t say as much. She placed the bouquet on her laminated calendar and asked the real question.
“Eric, did you by chance see that video of me yelling on Valentine’s Day?”
He didn’t skip a beat.
“Of course I did! Everyone did.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. Legitimately wiggled them. “I thought since we had such great chemistry already, why not capitalize on that?”
Nell had met some ballsy men in her time, but Eric was really leaning into the yikes zone. She needed to nip him in the bud before her brand-new boss came in and—
“Well, for starters, she’s at work.” Quinn walked coolly into the picture, hands in the pockets of his slacks and a polite, not polite smile across his lips. “Not to mention the new boss is a stickler when it comes to a professional workplace.”
Eric glanced between Quinn and Nell. He looked caught between confused and grumpy. Nell didn’t want to deal with either.
“Thanks for the flowers, Eric,” she said, curbing whatever he was opening his mouth to say. “I’m going to have to pass on keeping our particular fun going, though. Chemistry or not.”
The man was fast to snort. He was faster to pretend like everything was going how he wanted it to go.
“You know women who say they’re done with men? Usually they’re the ones who are dying inside at being single.” Eric’s tone reverted to that of a man nearing hissy-fit status. “I was just trying to help you out for old times’ sake. Your loss.”
Quinn held out his hand toward the door and stepped in front of Nell.
“All right there, Casanova. Let’s make sure you can find your way out.”
Eric shrugged off Quinn and his condescending tone but still they walked together out of Heart in Hand.
“Well, I sure am killing it with first, second, and third impressions with this guy,” Nell said with a sigh. It was more to herself than anyone else, but Tally appeared at her side and gave her a reassuring pat.
“I’m sure he’ll understand the attention you’re getting when you explain about the video.”
Despite thousands of people, strangers and Arbor Bay residents alike, knowing how she felt about men and dating, no one knew about Quinn. Her sitting down to eat dinner with him had never made it onto the video that went viral. He wasn’t even in the frame during her rant. Their picture together and her absolutely impulsive kiss also had escaped public knowledge. Nell knew because she certainly had looked for him once the video was making the rounds.
So she hadn’t told Tally about him when she’d come back to work and she didn’t tell Tally now.
What was the point of saying she’d already met Quinn? That she already knew how his lips felt and how much he hated the internet. That she’d felt embarrassed and a bit hurt when he didn’t take the picture or ask for her number before they parted ways.
That, somehow, right after the breakup with a man she would have married had he asked, Nell found some happiness between talk of red flags and over mashed potatoes.
Nope. Nell wasn’t going to head down that road. Her personal life was already news. She’d keep the details that hadn’t made it into circulation about that day to herself.
Unless Quinn decided to blab. Which, unless Nell was wrong about the grumpy old man shaking his fist at kids to get off his lawn vibes she had gotten from the man, he wouldn’t.
The little bell over the front door dinged as Quinn came back in a moment later. Eric’s sports car revved as it pulled away from Heart in Hand.
“It seems small towns are really like they say. Everyone has a history, huh?”
Nell snorted.
“That’s a polite way to say everyone is in everyone’s business. Though I am sorry about Eric. Our chemistry lived and died on the dance floor of homecoming when we were sixteen. I think the last time he even talked to me was two years ago,
and that was at church.”
Quinn nodded in the way people nod when they’re trying to act like they know exactly what you’re talking about.
“Well, now that we’re on the subject of everyone knowing everyone’s business…” He glanced over to Jones’s empty desk. Nell felt Tally’s panicked eyes on the side of her face.
Quinn had really picked the worst first day to show up in Arbor Bay.
Nell took a small, zigzagged step forward, slightly blocking his view, and scrambled to cover for her tardy friend, Jones Belleview.
“Well, as I’m sure Mr. Robertson told you, I’ve been running things here while he dealt with hiring a replacement for Ron, and what he may not have told you is the fact that we had no idea when that replacement, you, would get here. So I assigned a project for Jones today that will have him coming in a little late. Sorry. Again, we had no idea you’d be showing up here. Today.”
“A project,” Quinn repeated. He looked at Tally, the weakest, can’t lie to save herself, of them.
Nell nodded emphatically.
“Yes. One of the rentals had a thing and he’s finishing that up.” Nell grabbed her purse and coffee. “I actually told him I’d pick him up after I dropped some things off here. I’ll be back faster than you can say ‘Eric Waller needs to work on himself.’”
Now Quinn’s look deep-dove into the realm of suspicion. He was about to call her on her obvious lie but, bless her, Tally jumped in.
“While they’re doing that, I can get you up to speed on what’s currently going on with our properties,” she said, slightly squeaky.
That seemed to be the right thing to say to divert Quinn’s attention. He nodded and moved aside to let Nell pass. But he was all about the parting shot.
“Tell Mr. Belleview I look forward to meeting him.”
Nell smiled wide.
Then she was in her car and cursing.