Like a Boss (Accidentally Viral)

by Anne Harper

“Yes, besides the general warning about drinking tequila.” She softened. “Life is messier than it is anything else. It catches you off guard, it’s loud, and it has a funny way of making us realize beautiful moments were beautiful only after they’ve passed.”

  She moved her hand out of Nell’s father’s and then reached back to Nell herself. Her touch felt like years of love and compassion.

  “Experience has a funny way of making us realize we worried too much when we were younger. About what others thought and the expectations we had for ourselves. But one of the hardest parts of growing is learning that plans rarely hold and that mess can be the best thing to happen to you.”

  Nell scooted to the edge of the seat because she knew her mother’s next comforting move like it was muscle memory. She cupped Nell’s cheek and smiled through her matching dark eyes.

  “Making an impulsive trip to see your boyfriend that ended in a breakup? Yelling about love in a restaurant? Jumping out of windows and running through the woods looking like you got electrocuted? These could be your beautiful moments, mija. Don’t sour them by feeling shame for them or wishing you could go back and change them. Embrace them and move on.”

  Nell leaned into her mother’s hold. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. In the time since the viral video, Nell had talked to both of her parents on and off, but never anything that went too deep. They knew about Quinn as her new boss but they didn’t know about their adventures together. They knew he had put Keith in his place and that he’d helped Leon’s neighbor with Wiggly the Pig but they didn’t know that he lived in a tiny house in a clearing they’d been so close to. Or that she’d been terrified to meet his son without any planning because he meant the world to his father.

  Or that Nell thought she might be falling for the same man. The former loner who had laughed at her because she was afraid they might tip over the house with their sex moves.

  All Nell’s parents knew was that their daughter had been having a stressful, definitely not according to plan time lately.

  And that was okay, just as long as she didn’t let it get her down and keep her there.

  “Thanks, Mom. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, my sweet and wild Antonella.”

  Her mother’s smile transformed into a grin. She dropped her hand as Nell’s eyebrow rose in question at the mischievous new look.

  “Who knows? One day you might be telling your own child about these stories while you and your husband pretend not to know that you just picked them up from a walk of shame through the woods.”

  Nell recoiled and cringed. Her father did, too. Through the rearview she saw his expression twist into what Leon had dubbed his I don’t want to think about that too much face. Both admonished her mother.

  “Mom!”

  “Marta!”

  But she just laughed.

  “Didn’t you two hear? It’s my birthday month and I can do whatever I want. Speaking of.” She turned back to Nell, expectant. “Are you going to ask your friend to my birthday party next weekend as your date or are you going to stick to the no-men-forever promise that you made to the internet?”

  Nell curbed her sigh while trying to keep her emotions in check.

  She might have been sure of exactly what she wanted, screw the consequences, when she arrived at Quinn’s door. But what did Quinn want?

  “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Wiggly was once again corralled, caught, and deposited back into his pen within the hour of the calvary being called in the next day. Mateo and Liere had been the ones to do the deed and, although Owen was bummed he hadn’t been the one to do it, he was thrilled to be able to play with Wiggly for a few minutes while the adults hung back.

  It was the first time since Nell had run for the hills that she and Quinn had gotten a moment alone together. She quietly directed him away from Liere and Wren, who were in a deep conversation about work, and smirked.

  “If we have to come back out here for a third time, do you think we’ll get to keep Wiggly?” she joked. “I mean I’ve never thought about owning a pig before, but that wild child is starting to grow on me.”

  Quinn snorted but didn’t say anything. His words, like his thoughts over the last hour, had become a tangled web of grumpiness. Thanks, in part, to the man he didn’t know standing a few feet away.

  Nell tilted her head to catch his gaze.

  “Hey, but really, thanks for coming out,” she continued. “When I called you I had no idea that Leon had already called Liere and Mateo. Or that Liere had invited Wren.” She sighed. “Sometimes our family isn’t the best at communication. I blame our size, to be honest. Also meddling older sisters.”

  Quinn shrugged.

  “Owen enjoyed himself, so it’s all fine.”

  Nell’s brow rose. She took a small step forward. The sound of a happy pig and a happy kid floated in the air around them.

  “You must be so thrilled to have him here. Owen, I mean.”

  Quinn was quick to nod.

  “I can’t wait to see him every day when he’s living here full-time,” he admitted. “Though I’m not too fond of Deborah dropping him off while she gets a few things squared away with her new job last minute and without much of a heads-up. But that’s a co-parenting thing we’ll work on. I’m just happy my boy’s here, regardless.”

  Nell gave him a smile. That smile.

  The same one she’d given him after every time he’d talked about his son. This time, she spoke on it.

  “Can I just say that I plain love that you love your son so much? Maybe because I’m family oriented as all get out, a wonderful hazard of being from a big, loud, and loving family, but it’s really nice to see you care so much about him. Not every guy is as comfortable about showing that kind of feeling.”

  Quinn couldn’t understand why.

  “Loving Owen is the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” he said simply. “I couldn’t hide that even if I wanted to.”

  He saw Nell’s smile grow. They lapsed into a small silence while the sound of both of their families continuing to laugh and talk became background noise.

  Then Nell broke the silence with a bit of urgency in her voice.

  “I didn’t go out with Wren last night, by the way,” she said, voice low. “I mean it was never a real date or anything to begin with, but I canceled on him before I went out to your house. Before I kind of acted so out of control and fled. Just so you know.”

  Quinn had wondered about her date but with Owen showing up hadn’t had the time to ask. He did grin at the news now. And her self-jab.

  “Most men might have taken offense to you doing a triathlon just to get away.”

  Nell turned so she could see the pen better and bumped his shoulder.

  “I don’t think you’re like most men, Quinn Hannigan.”

  “And I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he said. “How did you get home, by the way?”

  He glanced down at her cheeks as they darkened a shade.

  “Oh, you know, just a couple of friends who were discreet and didn’t ask a lot of questions picked me up.” She averted her gaze. Quinn was about to ask a follow-up when she cleared her throat. “Which is slightly related to something I wanted to talk about with you. Did you know my mom’s birthday is coming up?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “I’ve heard you, Mateo, Tally, and Jones all talk about the party randomly over the last month. It sounds like a big deal.”

  “Oh, it is.” There was no hiding the excitement in her voice. “It’s the big sixty so we’re going all out. Honestly I think half of the town might be there but I was wondering if you wanted to go. With me. Oh and Owen, of course! There should be kids around his age there and we’re going to have games and music so it will be fun. I hope.” She laughed.
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  Quinn decided he really loved that sound.

  He might not have been the only one.

  Wren turned, eyed Nell for a moment, then returned his sweeping gaze to his conversation with Liere.

  If Quinn didn’t go with Nell, Wren would. Of that Quinn was sure.

  And he wasn’t a fan of how that felt.

  Too bad Wren wasn’t his only issue.

  Quinn shook his head. Nell’s face fell, but he was quick to recover.

  “Keith was right,” he couldn’t believe he found himself saying. “What we’re doing isn’t exactly smiled upon in the employee and employer handbook. Not after Ron and the scandal, and if we keep it a secret then we’re just making another one of our own to add to the drama Donavon doesn’t like. If we even have a chance of changing his mind to sell to one of us and not some stranger, we’re going to need to be on the straight and narrow with him. No secrets. Which is why I’m going to go talk to him this afternoon.”

  Nell’s expression became stiff. She nodded.

  “I agree,” she said. “But what are you going to say to him?”

  This was a question Quinn had already thought about at length the night before.

  When he was putting his son to sleep in the loft area he’d made for him and when he was lying alone in his own bed later.

  Life had changed for Quinn since the first moment Deborah had said she loved him but wasn’t sure if she was in love with him anymore. From reassurances to attempts at rekindling their relationship to couples therapy for Owen’s sake, Quinn had gone from a routine of marriage, work, and family right up to a road he hadn’t expected to travel but one that he begrudgingly had.

  A new start in a small town.

  A place that went at a slower pace.

  A job where he could spend more time with his son than at the office.

  A life that he could make simple from the get-go.

  No more curve balls or shoes dropping or surprises that bore no fruit he wanted to eat.

  Yet he hadn’t even made it across the county line before he’d met the kink in his plan. He just hadn’t known it yet when he was sitting across from Nell, rain- and tear-soaked.

  She’d been as beautiful then as she was now, looking up at him expectantly.

  The entire reason they’d met then and there was because her own life had changed without warning.

  It had been easy to forget the news that Nell would have married Greg had he asked when the woman herself had shown up at Quinn’s door.

  Now?

  Now it, Donavon, and the life that Quinn had wanted after his divorce were all blaring in his head. A stable future for his son. Security and no curve balls.

  “I’m going to talk to him about the future,” Quinn said simply. “Then I’ll come find you.”

  It wasn’t an in-depth answer but it seemed to do the trick. Nell went back to smiling.

  It took a lot for Quinn to do the same.

  …

  Nell felt like a teenager again. Sixteen and waiting by the landline for Gene Melrose to call and ask her to prom. This time though she was older, had the phone in her back pocket as she drove to work, and was waiting to see how the talk with the owner of her beloved company and her excellent kisser of a boss went about their future the night before.

  It was a definite difference from worry over the corsages and rented tuxes.

  One that was slowly driving Nell insane.

  So much so that she had finally, finally shared her bundling nerves and excitement with the one person she should have already done so with.

  Tally, who had accepted Nell’s sad excuse to pick up her car from Quinn’s the day before, had been enthralled in the tale no more than an hour ago. She hadn’t minded at all that Nell had shown up on her front doorstep before work.

  “You just stood there at Heart in Hand while I said you and Wren were fated?” she’d said as soon as Nell was done with the entire story, including every detail of her and Quinn’s journey together so far. Tally had shaken her head. “You and Quinn! That’s fate! I mean, what are the chances the two of you would meet like that and then come to the exact same place, down to the same building to meet again?”

  Tally had sighed with every dramatic breath she had available to her. Which had been a mighty amount.

  “That’s a romance waiting to happen. And happen it apparently did.”

  Nell had reminded Tally that while she and Quinn had locked lips, and other parts, it wasn’t like they were an item. Plus, there was the business of their actual business.

  Tally had grown serious.

  “Listen, after you told me about Donavon’s plan to try and get Dweller’s Cove, Jones and I got to really talking about it all,” she’d said. “Do you know that Donavon usually opens a business, keeps it for a few years, and then leaves or changes it completely? I mean, I knew of a few he’d done that to, but it was pretty damning evidence once we’d actually gone looking at his résumé.”

  Nell hadn’t understood the meaning Tally was trying to get at. The other woman had been fast to explain with some heat behind her words.

  “Donavon, we’re pretty sure, was always going to sell Heart in Hand. No matter if you’d gone viral, Quinn had punched Keith, or you two became an item. So, instead of carrying that self-blame on your shoulders, I suggest you shrug it off.”

  “But we could have had a shot at being able to keep Heart in Hand the way it is,” Nell had pointed out. “If Quinn had stuck to the script with Mrs. McMurray or if I would have come up with some kind of fallout plan afterward to try to make things right with her instead of flooring it to his house—”

  “All of it with Mrs. McMurray was a long shot,” Tally interrupted. “And, honestly, Quinn was right. She was mean and awful and, sure, her lot might have given you and him a chance to keep things the way they are, but at what cost? I’d rather have to find a new job than have someone tear you or any of us down the way that woman was. The thing about hurricanes is that, with luck, sometimes you can outrun them and be happier for it.”

  Nell had almost cried right then and there.

  Not so much because her best friend had been kind but that she’d felt relief she hadn’t known she’d been hoping for. Tally had seemed to pick up on the changing mood. She’d given the last of her thoughts with a smile.

  “Plus, Jones and I talked and we’ve decided that if worse comes to worst and we all lose our jobs, we’ll just have to start our own business together. Call it More Hearts in More Hands or something. Rally the town behind us and take down whoever it is who let us go.” She’d laughed as Nell’s eyes had grown at that. “Or, you know, get new jobs where we don’t have to stage any kind of after-the-fact mutiny.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the kind of security Quinn is looking for with Owen.”

  Tally had shrugged.

  “There’s no real security when it comes to any job or, you know, life,” she’d said. “Everything is a risk.”

  Nell had smiled at that.

  “Sometimes you sound like my mom and I can’t decide if that’s weird or not.”

  “Your mom is successful, happily married, has a full family, and laughs more than she cries.” Tally had laughed. “We could all stand to be more like Marta Bennett.”

  Tally’s words stuck to Nell through her drive to work that morning like gum to pavement. Everything she said kept coming back to Nell no matter how far she tried to get away from heavier thoughts.

  Fate and messy lives.

  Which was it for Nell? For Nell and Quinn?

  Those questions rattled around her head until Nell was parked outside of Heart in Hand. Quinn’s rental was the only one in the lot. Nell took a moment to herself.

  She’d been here before, but different.

  Greg had been her destination, one she hadn’t even ques
tioned, and the entire internet had seen how that turned out. Nell had been blindsided.

  And not just by his realization that she wasn’t the one.

  No. What had hurt the most?

  The realization that it hadn’t hurt the most.

  Liere was right with her talk outside of the Target with Olly sitting behind them in the back seat.

  Greg hadn’t been her the one.

  So what happened when the man Nell thought might be came with strings she couldn’t detach?

  What if the job she loved with all of her heart was what stood in the way of loving a man who might already have it?

  What if Donavon had decided already to sell to a stranger?

  What if they were all let go and Quinn decided to leave town?

  What would Nell do?

  “Only one way to find out,” she told the empty car around her.

  Heart in Hand met her with a whir of the air-conditioning unit and a smiling boy of twelve on the lobby couch. Owen looked up with that natural, non-caffeinated energy that only kids seemed to hang on to and waved his book at her.

  “Hi, Nell,” he greeted. He’d been somewhat shy when they’d first been introduced outside of Wiggly’s pen but that quiet way had all but disappeared since.

  “Hey there, Owen!” Nell tried to mimic his enthusiasm but her nerves had gotten the better of her. She pulled the biggest smile in her arsenal to her lips and got down to business. “Is your dad in his office?”

  Owen nodded.

  “He said when he’s done with paperwork we can go look at some of the vacation houses,” Owen said, nearly talking over himself. “But I have to do my reading until then. I don’t mind, though. I like to read.”

  “That’s really cool,” she said, hating to sound so generic. Now that she wasn’t trying to run into the woods to avoid seeing Owen under a less than ideal situation, she wanted to get to know him better. After she talked to his father to see how their future was looking. “I’ll let you get back to it. I’m going to go have a chat with your dad.”

  Owen kept smiling and then dove back into his book. Nell straightened her blouse and walked the plank back to an office she’d already been in hundreds of times before Quinn had come to town.