Rhinestone Way

by Addison Creek

  Once we were seated, the gargoyle handed us menus and disappeared.

  “I’m glad you like it,” said Quinn, who’d been watching me closely.

  I looked at him in surprise. I hadn’t said a word.

  “You’re smiling from ear to ear,” he explained.

  “I guess I am,” I said.

  “I didn’t mean to sound smug. This is my favorite place in town. I had hoped you’d like it too,” he said.

  “It’s beautiful. You would never know there’s a town just a trolley ride away,” I said.

  Quinn chuckled. “I think that’s why I like it so much. I’ve been here so many times I’ve had pretty much everything on the menu. Everything is good.”

  I bristled at that, wondering if he’d been coming here with his wife. Then I wondered if I should even be out with a married man. But no, that’s what tonight was for. He was going to explain everything. Eventually. He certainly didn’t wear a wedding ring, so that was one step in the right direction. Despite the fact that we were in a magical town, I had seen a lot of wedding rings flying around. Men and women wore them, even here. The fact that Quinn didn’t wear one made me think he was no longer actually married, despite what Cynthia had spat out at me that day.

  The gargoyle came back and poured us sparkling champagne. Then he took our orders and left again. The deck was still empty except for us.

  “Thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me tonight,” said Quinn. I was no longer sure I should be there, but Quinn looked quite relaxed, and he launched into his explanation without beating around the bush.

  “I wanted to explain about my wife,” he said. “Really, my former wife. She had no business coming up and talking to you like that at the dance hall. We are in fact divorced, though it is very recent. I don’t know why she continues to be so possessive, because as far as I can tell she never loved me in the first place. Then again, I suppose you don’t have to love someone to possess them. Anyway . . .” He shook his head as if he didn’t want to think about that any longer.

  I tried to wait patiently as he talked, but in fact I was on the edge of my seat. He was divorced! That much was a relief, because I had never had any interest in being Homewrecker Jade. It just didn’t have a good ring to it. I had barely had any interest in men at all until recently, but maybe I had just been waiting for that half-mermaid man to come around. You never do know what’s going to float your fancy, right?

  I rolled my eyes at my own inner monologue. Quinn was looking at me with concern, so I tried to arrange my face into something resembling open sympathy.

  He stopped looking at me and instead looked out to the water, so I wasn’t even sure whether I had succeeded in schooling my face into something normal. When I said nothing, he continued.

  “I was very young and confused when we got married. The mermaids had just rejected me outright. I had expected to be able to go home to that family—they’re half my lineage, after all. But my mother would hear nothing of the sort. She wanted to pretend I didn’t exist, and I guess that at the time I wanted to make it easier for her. I didn’t know the woman and all, so I had no interest in being a difficult child to her. At the time I met Cynthia, being with her was so easy. I was head over heels. I didn’t know anything about life, but that didn’t matter. She was bright and fun. She loved to dance and sing. Every day was an adventure with her. After we married, after only a very short time of dating, really, all of that changed. She became withdrawn and controlling. She wanted to move to the water, but that was the last thing I wanted.

  “I soon realized that she didn’t really love me at all. She was more fascinated by who I was than anything else. She just wanted to control me,” he said, a bit sadly.

  “When did you separate?” I asked.

  He snorted. “About six months after we married. We’ve lived apart for almost six years. Without my realizing it, she kept pretending we still lived together. In order to divorce, a couple must prove that they have lived apart for three years. When it turned out that she was pretending we still lived together, that count had to start over.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” I sputtered.

  Quinn smiled. His eyes traveled back to me from the water, but they didn’t lose their warmth. “The magical town is different from the human town. Divorce is thought of even more poorly here than it is where you came from.”

  “So when did you officially divorce?” I asked.

  “It became official about a year ago. We haven’t been a couple for years. I’m not sure we ever were a couple, really. I don’t think she loved me, and in my opinion love is the basis for any real relationship. I know that now. That’s why I’m single,” he explained.

  “Is that why you never took any witches to the debutant ball?” I asked.

  He raised his eyebrows. “I’ve had a tumultuous life. As you can tell. I wasn’t supposed to exist. That puts a lot of pressure on me. I don’t want to draw someone into my life who will face unpleasantness because of who I am. That’s the last thing I want. Still, it’s clear to me that I’m a prize. Everybody thinks I’m fascinating because I’m half mermaid, or something like that. I don’t really see it, but I’m not going to argue with everybody in town. I hadn’t taken anyone to the debutant ball because I haven’t wanted to. It was as simple as that.”

  I found myself nodding slowly. The situation was more complicated than I had ever expected. Then again, life itself was complicated, wasn’t it? We couldn’t just expect fairy tales and rainbows, especially not in a town literally hidden behind a waterfall. We already had beautiful simplicity in some ways, but life as a whole was still tangled and unpredictable. This all made some sort of strange sense to me.

  Most importantly, I very much appreciated Quinn’s honesty. He wasn’t sugarcoating the bad parts of his life. He wasn’t lying to me about the mistakes he had made in the past. I felt better for my mistakes because of it.

  “How many times have you been married?” Quinn asked me.

  My mouth fell open. For a brief moment neither of us said anything, then Quinn burst out laughing. I glared at him. “I’ve never been married, thank you very much. My stepsister was just getting married when you and Bethel showed up.”

  “I remember that vividly. It was quite the event. A very extravagant wedding,” he said.

  “Yes, Bailey was always going to have a big wedding. She thought she deserved it,” I said.

  “Is it a question of deserves?” he asked.

  He was genuinely interested. Maybe he found weddings fascinating, or maybe it was people he found fascinating. I supposed that as a sheriff, there was a good chance you would take an interest in human behavior.

  “I think it’s fine to have a big wedding if that’s what you want. I don’t think it says anything about how much you love the other person. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the opposite. Most people are trying to put on a show. You don’t have to. If you love the person, that’s enough. The wedding is secondary.”

  “So when it comes time for your wedding, you won’t care about the dress or anything like that?” he asked, a tiny hint of amusement sparking in his eyes.

  I scoffed at his silly notions.

  “Don’t kid yourself. I care a ton,” I grinned at him.

  Dinner came, and we ate. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until the food was set in front of me and turned out to be delicious. After that it was all I could do to talk to Quinn and have my meal. I really just wanted to stuff my face.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  As the evening lengthened, I enjoyed being with Quinn more and more. Like eating a decadent strawberry shortcake dessert that got better with every bite, I felt that each minute was better than the one before it, until I was stuffed and happy. The topics we talked about ranged all over the place. He wanted to know about my childhood and if I ever suspected I was a witch. He couldn’t believe my father never told me the truth about who I was.

 
I asked how he had found his way to Twinkleford and he rolled his eyes. “Now that’s a story. I suppose I have time to tell it if we have dessert.”

  I knew he was really asking me if I wanted to stay and continue the date. For a heartbeat I didn’t respond. There was only one answer, though. “Dessert sounds lovely,” I said.

  After we ordered two slices of double chocolate cake, Quinn launched into his story. “I actually came for the university. I needed a change of pace in my life. I had been sailing on the sea for a lot of my formative years. I loved the water, but I also wanted friends my own age. That’s actually how I met Cynthia. Anyway, I came to the university to study. I thought maybe I would enter politics or something like that.

  “My whole life was ahead of me that day of the explosion. Since then I’ve had only one real friend, an ogre named Simon. We still lived together to this day,” he explained.

  “Wait a minute, you live with an ogre? I didn’t know that. Have I seen him around town?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “It’s unlikely. He doesn’t like coming to town. He’s not the most social of fellows. He got his farming degree and has barely left the property since. Usually he even pays someone to take our vegetables and stuff to market. He’s a good roommate, though, partly because he cooks. I can’t cook for anything. He also doesn’t mind that we have a private pond on our property. I don’t think I could live so far away from water that I couldn’t swim every day. It isn’t the ocean, but at least it’s something.”

  I found myself nodding. Now that he said it, I could in fact see Quinn living on a farm. “I’m surprised you don’t live on houseboat.”

  He chuckled. “I thought about it, but that would probably cause a lot of problems with the fish. Besides, as the sheriff here I need to be able to respond quickly to calls and problems. It’s not always easy to get off a houseboat in a hurry,” he said with a grin.

  “I guess that’s true,” I said. “I would like to meet this Simon.”

  “He would like to meet you, too,” said Quinn, sounding excited.

  “He knows about me?” I frowned.

  My dinner companion cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed. I leaned forward, smiled, and repeated gently, “He knows about me?”

  “Yes, well, I talk about a lot of people I know. Your appearance in Twinkleford has been a big to-do. Besides, you got in the way of one of my investigations,” he said.

  Now we were skating closer to dangerous ground. He had suspected my sister of murder. With hindsight I could see how he got there, but I still didn’t appreciate it. He could also see that we were heading towards the conversation that neither of us wanted to have.

  “Would you like to dance with me?” he asked suddenly. I looked up from my nearly finished chocolate cake in surprise. We were still the only ones on the deck, but even so, there wasn’t a lot of room for dancing.

  “Here? Now?” I asked.

  “Yes, now. Yes, nearby,” he said, a twinkle sparking in his eye. I suddenly felt self-conscious and befuddled. I wasn’t sure if a man had ever asked me to dance before. Yet here he was, this broad-shouldered half-mermaid who was literally the man in my dream.

  “Yes, I would like to dance,” I said.

  His smile stretched wide. The sun had just set, painting the sky a blazing dark blue. Lights had come on around the patio; the candles had somehow grown bigger. We were all alone in this beautiful natural spot on the river.

  Quinn stood up and offered me his hand. Tentatively, I took it. His palm was warm and inviting. He led me gently around the table. Just as my hand touched his, music started up somewhere in the background, gentle and soaring. I didn’t recognize it, but it was perfect to dance to.

  “I’m afraid I’m not a very good dancer,” I told him. My words came out as a whisper despite the fact that we were already alone.

  He smiled at me. “I’m afraid I’m not either. I hope you won’t mind.”

  “I suppose I can forgive you this one time,” I said with a smile.

  To my utter surprise, he led me down the back steps toward the bubbling and churning river. The sounds that surrounded us were a perfect accompaniment to the music. They melted together as if that had been the plan all along.

  I expected him to let go of my hand as we walked, but he didn’t. I let my hand lay in his.

  I felt more relieved than I had in a long time. We had had an honest discussion about his first wife, and we had not had a fight about my sister. This felt a lot like progress. We had also laughed. I had told him about my family and learned something about his as well.

  When he stopped us about ten feet from the water, I looked up and felt dizzy. The dark blue sky behind him seemed wavy, like water, making it difficult for me to balance. He clasped me tightly and I knew I wouldn’t fall. “Are you ready to dance?”

  “Yes, I am,” I said.

  He spun me outward and then back into his arms. He caught me there as we both started to move. I lost track of where we were as we danced back and forth. He was right; he wasn’t a very good dancer either. But he was better than I was, and I was having such a good time being led around the forest floor that I didn’t care. I felt light on my feet. Any worries I had about tripping disappeared. It was as if there was nothing under my feet. We were dancing on air.

  I threw my head back and laughed. I had never had so much fun. Everything else fell away except for his arms around me and the cool, crisp air surrounding us.

  “I’m surprised one of us hasn’t tripped over our own feet or a log,” I told him breathlessly.

  He raised his eyebrows. “It would be difficult to trip over a log out here,” he said into my ear.

  For a dizzying moment I looked around, then I realized exactly where we were. Shock made me almost stumble, but he caught me.

  “Did you not realize where we were?” he asked.

  I shook my head. I had been so busy enjoying the dance that I hadn’t seen where we had gotten to. I glanced down at my feet, which were gliding over the water of the river, as were Quinn’s. We weren’t exactly floating, but we certainly weren’t sinking. Quinn was a half mermaid, and apparently this was one of the things that meant.

  My date tonight had ended with us dancing on water.

  After a lot more dancing, Quinn walked me home in the moonlight. As we danced, we had been told off by a gathering of angry beavers. They were pretty possessive about the water, but they calmed down a bit when they realized who Quinn was. Even sharks didn’t want to tangle with mermaids. Quinn had laughed it all off. He said the river was big enough for all of us.

  On our way home he kept one arm over my shoulders. “Thanks for coming out tonight. I really wanted to talk to you, and I think we both needed a break,” he said.

  “I can’t remember ever having such a good time,” I told him. He nodded his head as if he felt the same. By this time we were almost home, and I could see lights on in my house.

  “There was one other thing I wanted to discuss,” Quinn said. He turned to face me and I instantly felt the cold on my shoulder.

  “What was that?” I asked. Our faces weren’t very far apart. I felt warm, happy, and relaxed.

  “I wanted to talk to you about this snooping thing you’re doing,” he said.

  The mood came crashing down on my head. I had hoped that we could separate business from pleasure, but that was probably foolish. Quinn was the sheriff through and through. He would never be able to separate the two. At least not in relation to my snooping around.

  I blinked several times. I had been wrapped up in the evening, but now he had brought me back down to earth. Kyle was lying in a hospital bed. Kelly was probably still worried sick about her brother. The case had yet to be solved.

  “I tend to be the sort who doesn’t like to make the same mistake twice,” Quinn began. “In this case I feel as though I have been making the same mistake repeatedly. In short, you are not going to stop snooping. I have to understand and accept that. Before
I thought it was simply to save your sister. Now I know better. You’re just going to snoop, and I’ve got to accept that. I believe it’s the trademark of a good sheriff. I’m not going to keep banging my head against the wall trying to get you to stop. We just don’t have that kind of time.”

  I blinked up at him. “What are you saying?” I asked.

  He sighed. “From this moment until we find out what happens to Kyle, I’m not going to let you out of my sight. It’s the only way.”

  “Wait a minute! You think you can just tell me what to do and I’ll do it?” I demanded.

  “It’s for your own safety. We can’t let anything happen to another Rhinestone. Everyone in town agrees,” he said.

  “Not everyone. If something happens to me, Ethel can come back,” I informed him.

  He sighed. “You know that isn’t possible right now.”

  “I’ll tell you all the things that aren’t possible,” I muttered.

  “See you tomorrow,” he replied cheerfully.

  What Quinn really meant by that was that he would let me stay home by myself, but if I left the property, he was going to be with me. From now on, any snooping I did would be done in his presence. His demands irked me, but I didn’t see how I could avoid him.

  Reacting to his declaration, my mind immediately went to two things. First, we would be spending more time together than we ever had before. Second, how was I going to get out of it? I had a lot to do. Was he going to come with me to the professor’s lab? She needed a report on the ingredients. Without those we weren’t going to get anywhere. She had told me to come back any time, but surely I couldn’t do that with the sheriff in tow.

  My cousin was going to be shocked when she heard an evening full of news, in twists and turns.

  I made my way inside and fell into bed. On my way upstairs I grabbed the present off the front table, wishing I had my sister to talk to. I didn’t even know her, but in this moment she was the only person I could think of who might be able to offer good guy advice.