by Anne Harper
Nell felt a hand grab her wrist seconds before another hand found her opposite hand. Liere and Olly.
“Then I met someone,” he continued, a small smile pulling up the corner of his lips. “She was loud in every sense of the word, yelling the second I ever saw her and never quiet a day after that when I was with her. It made me uncomfortable at first. Entertained me next. Then I started to expect it. I looked forward to it. The moments in the day where everything went wrong in just the right way. The moments when Antonella Bennett showed up and made noise.”
The quick turning of heads made a wave motion around her as the eyes of her friends, family, and neighbors stuck to her. Liere squeezed her wrist while Olly patted her hand.
Nell, however, didn’t move a muscle.
She didn’t even smile.
Just kept looking at the man she’d just decided to let go as he opened up. When he spoke next, he was all eyes on her.
“I’m here to tell you that the world failed you the moment you felt less than because of something someone else said. I shouldn’t have lied to you about Donavon and I shouldn’t have lied to you about why I did it in the first place.” He unclipped the microphone and took a step away from the stand.
Logically, Nell knew they were surrounded by people. Some paying rapt attention while holding drinks or hands with their partners or, most likely, smartphones already set to record.
But everyone, her family included, was slowly disappearing into the scenery.
It was just her and Quinn.
“I lied when I said I was okay with how Deborah moved on like she did. Up until then, I was the only person who hadn’t known my marriage was really over,” he kept on. “I was in the dark going through the motions while everyone else had already moved on. It hurt. It hurt in a way I hadn’t guessed it would. Then, when I’d finally gotten on the same page and it was my turn to finally move on, I met you. And I couldn’t handle the idea that all of that would happen again with you. That we were just caught up in a whirlwind that was only ever going to die down. I didn’t want to chance that pain. For either of us. So, like the quiet man I am, I hid behind the only cover I could find. And I’m sorry for that. I truly am.”
Quinn returned the microphone to the stand. Then he was in the crowd coming right for her. Everyone around them parted like the Red Sea. Even Liere and Olly moved aside.
When he was standing in front of Nell, he moved his hand into his blazer and pulled something out. It took the smallest of seconds to realize what she was looking at.
“The Polaroid of us,” she whispered. Nell was staring at a picture of their first kiss on Valentine’s Day, both lost in something they hadn’t thought they would find. “But my picture is in my bedroom.”
This time when Quinn spoke, it was with a smile lighting up every part of him.
“This is from the bulletin board.”
Nell had to physically touch the picture as if to make sure it was real.
“I thought you didn’t take it?”
Quinn frowned a little at that.
“I didn’t because even then I could feel something between us and it made me terrified,” he admitted. Then that smile came back. “So I went back there today and took this copy off of the bulletin board. Timmy says hi by the way.”
At that, Nell actually snorted.
Quinn seemed to be encouraged by that. He took the picture from her, put it back in his blazer, and pulled her right into his gaze.
“I want the loud, Nell. I want the crab trap, the football and beer, the spy moves and the pig named after a grocery store. I want you covered in mud at midnight and trying to find your lost shoe. I want it all. I want you. So…what do you say?”
That was it.
That was where Quinn stopped.
In front of a crowd and right in front of Nell.
And now it was her turn.
…
Nell opened her mouth; Quinn readied for whatever she had to say.
He’d done it.
He’d finally said what he really felt.
Was it too late?
A swell of noise from the party behind them pulled his attention away. The guests on the patio were now parting.
There wasn’t much that would have normally distracted Quinn away from his current conversation, yet when he saw the two men in the middle of the growing circle of space, he cussed low. Sure enough, he found the one situation that had timed perfectly with his imperfect and extremely public speech.
Keith McHaulty was in the middle of the patio and looked like he was trying not to get his ass kicked.
By Wren Blocker of all people.
Both turned their sights on Quinn and Nell.
A belated thought occurred to him at the sight of Wren’s face contorted in anger.
“Wait. Are you here with Wren?”
Nell shook her head, curls bouncing.
“I only invited you. He’s Liere’s date.”
Quinn didn’t have time to feel hope at that. Instead he followed as the Bennett children made their way over to the new point of attention.
Quinn already had a feeling he might get that strike three Keith had warned him about after all.
“What in the double junk is going on?” For a smaller lady, Nell’s voice carried a hefty weight. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the entire party, inside and out, were all eyes on them now.
Wren was the first to speak. He jabbed his thumb in Keith’s direction.
“Sorry, I caught him sneaking in and trying to record everything and figured out of everyone here that he’s not the one we want doing that, especially without consent. Then he said some not so great things about Nell. I tried to get his phone back to delete the video.”
Keith looked at Quinn with wide eyes. Whatever he was going to say, Nell beat him to it. She lunged at him. Quinn barely had time to grab her.
“What is your fascination with me?” she yelled. “Do you have nothing better to do than creep around my life?”
Keith sneered back at her.
“I’m just trying to show this town who you really are. Everyone has been so quick to throw me under the bus for reporting on the truth and I’m tired of it.”
“The truth?” Quinn asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Keith pointed to Nell.
“That you are an attention whore! One minute you’re getting famous for swearing off men and the next you’re hooking up with your boss! It’s disgusting!”
Quinn hadn’t heard much after the whore comment.
“That’s it.” Quinn let go of Nell. “Looks like strike three is coming and it’s going to be a repeat after all.”
As was life around Nell, the next few seconds were surprising as hell. Before Quinn could get his fist to Keith’s face, something streaked past him and beat him to it.
Keith’s head recoiled back. He actually squeaked.
Quinn realized the flying object was a shoe just as Marta Bennett pushed him aside. She stopped right in front of the sham reporter with her other shoe ready to go.
Keith was less cocky when he realized who his new opponent was. His face fell.
One thing you didn’t take lightly in a small southern town? Angry mothers. Every single one of them.
“Keith McHaulty, we are going to call your mother right now,” she yelled. “And if you give me any lip about it, I swear to everything holy, I’m going to make your life as miserable as you must feel every time you look in the mirror! Understood?”
Keith, a grown-ass man reduced to a child, opened his mouth to say something to save himself, but someone new from the crowd cut him off.
“I’d listen to her, son.” It was Nell’s dad. He was smiling, but it was as dangerous as his wife’s anger. “When she puts her mind to something she sees it through no matt
er what.”
The crowd became quiet. Everyone was looking at the dead man walking, waiting for him to decide a fate that had already been decided.
Finally, he grimaced.
Marta kept her shoe held high but her shoulders relaxed.
“Good. Honey, get my phone,” she said over her shoulder. “I want to call her while I watch him delete that video. Everyone else? Get back to your own business and dance.”
The crowd listened, but not all of the way.
Quinn was in the same boat.
He turned back to Nell.
She was already looking at him.
“What about Heart in Hand?” she asked, genuine concern written across her face. “What if whoever buys it next decides to get rid of us all?”
Quinn had almost forgotten to tee up the next reveal for Nell. Mrs. McMurray would have chided him if so, there was no doubt. During their car ride to the restaurant to get the picture, she’d talked about nothing but business.
Well, and the future.
“I found out today that we got Dweller’s Cove. But Donavon was offered a deal he couldn’t refuse. He’s not going to sell it to either one of us.”
Nell’s eyes widened.
“Then who is he selling it to?”
Once again, part of the crowd around them moved as someone new entered their area.
Mrs. McMurray had on a loud orange dress and a pink party hat that matched her hair.
“Me.”
She strode up to them like she was on a soap opera. The day before, Quinn would have rolled his eyes, but it wasn’t the day before anymore. A lot had changed since then.
“You’re buying Heart in Hand?” Nell’s voice broke a little. “Why?”
Mrs. McMurray was nothing if not accommodating with her dramatics.
“So I can make sure that old fool of a mushroom Donavon doesn’t get in a mood and sell it to someone who doesn’t deserve it,” she declared loudly. Then, with a smile, she continued with less showmanship. If there was one thing Quinn had learned through their talk about business on the way to the restaurant, it was that Mrs. McMurray took dedication, loyalty, and hard work very seriously. “Mr. Hannigan and I talked today and he agreed with me that I think you should be the one to buy and own Heart in Hand.”
Mrs. McMurray cut her gaze to Quinn and smirked.
“Though, had he not agreed, it wouldn’t have mattered. I’d already made up my mind.”
Nell looked between them, eyebrow raised.
“I-I don’t understand.”
Mrs. McMurray went back to nice. Or not as hard of edges as she’d had before.
“When you’re ready, I’m going to sell you and only you Heart in Hand. No tricks. No competitions.” Mrs. McMurray lowered her voice for the next part. Quinn could have sworn he saw a twinkle in her eye. “And, I can guarantee you, at a much more reasonable price than anything Donavon would have done.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Nell shook her head. She looked back at Quinn, but it was Mrs. McMurray who spoke next.
“I say you have more interesting matters to attend to now,” she said. “Maybe even a little kissing if you feel the same way Mr. Hannigan does. Though I’m not sure of your stance on kissing in public. Maybe you just like to yell instead.”
Nell laughed. A genuine, wonderful sound. She kept her eyes on Quinn.
“I think my yelling in restaurants might be over,” she said. “Though maybe just in case, we should give Timmy a wide berth. I know he said hi but I still don’t know if I can trust the mashed potatoes.”
For a second, Quinn didn’t understand—he had just watched her mother beam someone with a shoe minutes after using a microphone to tell a party that he wanted to be with the hosts’ daughter—but then it sunk in.
She was talking about the Sweethearts Special they’d shared on Valentine’s Day.
She was talking about a future with him.
Quinn smiled right on back.
That was all he needed to hear.
Nell laughed as Quinn closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. The sound melted between their lips in a kiss Quinn didn’t want to end.
Mrs. McMurray clapped and the Bennetts’ gasps of surprise and pleasure mixed in with the beat of the crowd around them.
Mateo summed up the moment quite nicely.
“I swear, Mom’s parties are the fucking best!”
Epilogue
“Antonella Bennett, what in the world is going on in here?”
Quinn was holding a rolled-up banner in one hand, a container of brownies Tally had baked in the other, and a look that absolutely said she was in trouble all over his face. Using her full name wasn’t a good sign, either.
“I can explain.” She looked around the madness that was Dweller’s Cove’s sunroom. On its own it might not have appeared that bad, but her standing there covered in paint, cracker dust, and sweet tea wasn’t helping it or her. “Okay, I think I can explain.”
“Why is there paint everywhere?” His voice reached an octave that Nell now knew after a year of being together was something she’d dubbed pre-angry. It meant she had a shrinking timeline to assure him everything was going to be all right.
Or, enough time to convince him to go along with whatever really bad plan she’d come up with.
You know, it all depended on the situation.
Lucky for him, this particular situation wasn’t as wackadoodle as some of the others they’d been in.
Nell took a step forward. The plastic she’d had the good sense to put down before the incident was, thankfully, still holding firm beneath her tennis shoes.
Her tennis shoes that had yellow paint streaked across them.
“So you know how Mrs. McMurray and I were talking about how boring this room is and me and you talked about painting it but we needed to run it by her first?”
Quinn set the container of brownies down on one of the few surfaces that wasn’t covered in mess.
“Yeah,” he said, slow and with ample suspicion.
“Well, she called while you were at Donavon’s to tell me when her flight was getting in tomorrow and, well, we kind of got to talking and I told her about something I’d seen on Pinterest…and she kind of went gaga for it.”
Quinn put his hands on his hips.
A power stance. One that they both knew wouldn’t change a thing, but she still let him have his hope.
He looked really good when he tried to be authoritative.
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
A squeal sounded outside of the house.
Quinn’s eyebrow shot up.
“Is Wiggly here?”
Another squeal was followed by laughter. On cue, Owen and Wiggly the Pig came into view. They were running around in the backyard like they were playing a game of tag. Something they did often back at the house.
What wasn’t normal other than the change of location?
Wiggly had yellow paint spattered across him.
Quinn slid his eyes slowly back to hers.
Nell sighed.
“Okay so Owen and I were looking at some craft things you can do with pet pigs so he could make something for Deborah for her birthday and then we stumbled onto a blog post where this farmer lady used her pet pig to make patterns on her wall.”
Nell pointed to the only wall not covered in windows. She watched as Quinn finally saw what would have surely been a masterpiece had everything not gone chaotic.
“Is that—” He carefully picked his way across the room to get a better view. Then he gave her an incredulous look. “Nell, did you cover Wiggly’s butt and tail with paint and then press him against the wall?”
Nell shook her head.
“Of course not,” she exclaimed. Then, more quietly, “Mateo did the hea
vy lifting.”
Quinn opened his mouth—to tell her she was brilliant, she was sure—but the door to the side yard opened behind him. Mateo’s eyes went wide at seeing Quinn there. When he turned around, they shared a look.
Mateo made a face.
“I, uh. Well. You know. See, we, Nell and me and, uh—”
Quinn crossed his arms over his chest.
Mateo exhaled in defeat.
“Listen, it’s non-toxic paint,” he said. “Wiggly is fine, and I mean, you have to admit what we got done is pretty cute.”
Quinn shook his head, but Nell could see his resolve to be the mature one in the room was waning.
“But what happened after that?” He gave Nell an obvious body scan. “Why are you covered in all of that?”
The side door opened again.
This time, Wren came in looking guilty as sin. It didn’t help that Mateo pointed at him.
“Because he sneezed!”
If Quinn thought he was getting a hold of the situation, that one seemed to throw him.
“You sneezed?” he asked Wren, who almost looked like he was ready to lie. But then he broke like he was being interrogated and laid everything out.
“Yeah. Mateo was holding Wiggly and I sneezed and he got spooked and started squirming. Mateo dropped him right into the paint and then Nell tried to grab him but then she tripped and paint went everywhere. Mateo and Owen had to chase Wiggly once he got out and then they sent me to the store to get some cleaning supplies for Wiggly and the room…before you got back.”
Wren let out a sigh of relief.
Since her mother’s birthday party Wren had become a constant in the Bennett family’s life. Partly because he and Liere were now married after a whirlwind romance that Liere had said was a long time coming, even if they hadn’t known it yet. But mostly because he and Quinn had become super besties in the last year. It definitely helped that Liere and Nell had kept their houses. The men often could be seen walking back and forth between homes.
“Come on, man, you can’t have thought that was a good idea to start off with,” Quinn said. “Using a pig ass as a stamp?”
Wren laughed but continued to look guilty.