Quinn said nothing. He held her close.
Finally, hesitantly, she told him the story. “I met Ted Davies at Stanford in my sophomore year. He was four years older than me, in law school. And he was everything my mother raised me to want. Handsome and charming, already rich, from a powerful California family, bound for a successful career as a corporate lawyer. I saw him as perfect husband material, and he saw me as exactly the right wife to stand by him as he climbed to the top. We got married in a gorgeous wine country wedding at the end of my senior year and I went to work being his wife, which both of us considered a full-time job. It was all going so well until Ted lost his temper. He’d decided I’d been too friendly to one of the partners at his office Christmas party. We had a fight. We’d been married for a little more than two years. That was the first time he hit me.” She tipped her head up and looked at Quinn then.
He knew that look. She was checking to see how he was taking it. He met her eyes and stroked her hair and didn’t let her see what was going on inside him. He was a simple man, really, especially when it came to stuff like this. A simple man who wanted to track down that jackass she’d married and beat his face in for him.
Chloe lowered her head again and tucked herself against his chest. “I left him.”
“Good.”
She glanced up again. He was ready for that. Playing it easy and accepting for all he was worth, he kissed the tip of her elegant nose. With a sigh, she settled again. “Ted...wooed me back. He went into counseling for anger management to prove to me that he was a changed man.”
“But he wasn’t.”
“I’ll say this. He didn’t hit me again for a long time, though his scary temper was increasingly in evidence as the next four years went by. Three years ago, I found out he was having an affair with a college student, an intern at his firm. I confronted him. When he couldn’t convince me that he was totally innocent and that I was only being a small-minded, jealous wife, he lost it. He punched me in the face hard enough to bloody my nose and blacken both eyes. I left him. And after that, I was done. No cajoling or high-powered charm offensive or promises that he’d get more counseling could sway me. I sued for divorce. As it happened, he was still seeing the other woman—and she wanted to be his wife. So I got my divorce and a nice settlement. And Ted got a new, younger wife. And except for how I still feel guilty that I didn’t press assault charges against him, that should have been the end of it, right?”
He rubbed a soothing hand up and down her arm. “But it wasn’t.”
“I tried to keep going in Southern California. But then Ted started coming around again, talking reconciliation, as if I would even let him near me, as if he didn’t have a wife waiting at home. I decided I needed to make a new start—or rather, I realized what I really wanted was to come back where I began and try to get it right this time.”
He tipped her chin up then and kissed her.
She said shyly, “I do feel like I’m finally getting it right, Quinn. Getting it right with you.”
Those fine words dampened his carefully masked fury against the abusive loser she’d married, enough that he kissed her again. And then he asked, “So you’re sure that your mother’s been in contact with this guy?”
“She wouldn’t admit it straight out, but yes. I’m sure she has. She told me how he wants to get back together with me—and my mother’s all for that. That was when I finally threw her out. I’m done with her, Quinn. Finished.”
Quinn blew out a slow breath. He was no more a fan of Linda Winchester than Linda was of him. And it turned his stomach that the woman would go behind Chloe’s back and encourage the man who’d hurt her.
But there had been deep and painful rifts in his own family, especially back in the day when his father refused to choose between Sondra Oldfield Bravo and Quinn’s mother. It wasn’t all roses now, but it was better. Since returning to Justice Creek, he’d discovered he actually liked his half siblings. That couldn’t have happened if they’d refused to give each other a chance.
“Still,” he said. “There’s a bond there, a strong one, between you and your mother.”
“It’s broken. Broken beyond repair.”
“Chloe, she’s family. You gotta keep that in mind, you know? I’m not saying just forgive her and act like nothing happened. But try to be open, okay? Give it time and see if she comes around, makes amends.”
“I wish I could be as accepting and patient as you are.”
Quinn had to stifle a grunt of disbelief when she said that. Yeah, he might be willing to be patient with her mother. But Chloe’s ex? He’d like to meet good old Ted in a dark alley some night. Only one of them would come out, and it wouldn’t be Davies.
Chloe snuggled in close again. “Can we just...leave the subject of my mother alone for now?”
“Sure. But I got a question.”
She must have picked up something not all that accepting in his tone, because she pushed free of his arms and scooted back to the other couch cushion. “What?”
“You heard from this Ted character since you moved back to Justice Creek?”
Chloe cleared her throat. A definite tell. “No. He, um, hasn’t called.”
Quinn knew then that the guy had been in contact with her. He reminded her, “You and me, we got something special. And I know when you’re not being straight with me.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and pleaded with those pretty blue eyes. “You have to promise me you won’t do anything, won’t...go after him or anything.”
Quinn’s pulse leaped. He couldn’t keep a promise like that. “You just gotta tell me what he did, Chloe. You know that you do, you know that’s how we need to be with each other. We need to tell the truth to each other—and then we can decide what to do about it.”
She swallowed. Hard. “All right. One time.”
“You’ve heard from him one time?”
“Yes. He sent me flowers. With a short note that said how flowers remind him of me and he was sorry it didn’t work out...”
There was more, he was certain. He pushed for it. “And?”
“The note also said that he, um...missed me. I threw everything—the vase, the flowers, that damn note, too—in the trash compactor and ground it all to bits.”
“When was that?”
“A week ago. Last Wednesday night.”
He wanted to pick up her tea mug from the table and hurl it at the far wall. But he kept it together and said levelly, “That was the night we sat out on your deck and talked for two hours.”
She gazed at him warily now. “What are you getting at?”
“I wish you had told me then—or any day or night since then.”
“That’s not fair and you know it. It’s been happening pretty fast with us. Think about it. I just couldn’t tell you, didn’t even know how to tell you—not the night it happened or the next day, or the day after that. I can barely talk about it now.”
She had a point. He knew it. And really, he only wanted to neutralize any threat to her. “I don’t blame you, angel.” He said it softly, without heat. Because it was true. “No way do I blame you.”
Her sweet face crumpled. “You mean that?”
“You know I do.” He reached for her. She let out a small cry and allowed him to wrap his arms around her again. He held her tight, loving the way she felt, so soft in all the right places. “That’s it, then? That’s the only move he’s made on you since you came back home?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
“Did you call him and tell him to leave you alone?”
“Uh-uh. You have no idea how many times in the past I told him to leave me alone. That only seemed to encourage him.”
“I hear that. So, then, don’t engage him.” He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. “Did you go t
o the police?”
“And tell them what? That my ex-husband sent me flowers out of the blue and a nice little note?”
“Don’t get defensive. I agree that you don’t have anything to charge the creep with. I just want to be sure, to know everything that happened, to know exactly where we stand with this piece of crap.”
“We?” She pushed away from him again, smoothed the yellow skirt of her pretty summer dress over her knees and then looked him straight in the eye. “Quinn. Ted is in no way your problem. This thing with him is for me to solve. I will not drag you into my mess. I don’t want you going after him, or approaching him, or contacting him or getting near him, ever. I need your word on that.”
He would give her anything—the world on a gold platter. But not this. “That guy needs to know you’re not alone anymore. He needs to know someone’s got your back.”
“I couldn’t care less what he needs, Quinn. I’m talking about what I need. And that is to know I can tell you my hardest secrets and trust that you won’t go racing off to solve all my problems for me in your own way. Because they are my problems and I’m the one who gets the final say when it comes to dealing with them. It’s about respect, and you know it. You have to respect me and let me figure out how to mop up the mess I created. Please.”
He really hated that what she said made sense. “You will tell me, if he does anything, if you hear so much as a word from him again?”
“I will, yes.” She folded her hands on her knees. “And you will honor my wishes and let me handle this in my own way?”
He scraped both hands down his face. “You got me up against the ropes here.”
“Because you do respect me. I know you only want to protect me and you have no idea how much I love that about you.”
Love. It was a big word. And it was also the first time she’d used it in reference to him. Quinn liked the way it sounded coming out of that fine mouth of hers. He liked it a lot.
What he didn’t like was not being allowed to teach Ted Davies an important life lesson. Then again, guys like that always managed to get what was coming to them eventually. Quinn fervently hoped he’d have the honor of taking Ted to church when the time came.
“Quinn?” she asked, all breathless and hopeful. “I need your word that you’ll leave Ted alone.”
Damn it to hell. He gave it up. “All right. For now, for as long as he never tries to get in touch with you again, you got my word.”
* * *
Chloe was no fool.
She fully understood what it cost Quinn to make her that promise. He’d done a really good job of hiding his anger at Ted. But already, in the short time they’d been together, she’d learned to read him. He wanted to go after Ted, he needed to do that, needed to step forward and be her protector.
What woman wouldn’t appreciate that in a man?
But he’d done protectiveness one better. He’d agreed to go against what he needed to do and leave Ted alone. Because she’d asked him to. And if she hadn’t already been halfway in love with him, well, that he had made that promise kind of sealed the deal as far as she was concerned.
“Thank you,” she whispered, taking his big hand, turning it over and smoothing his beefy fingers open. “Thank you...” She bent close and pressed a kiss in the center of his rough, hot palm.
“Let’s just hope we’ve seen the last of him,” Quinn muttered gruffly.
She couldn’t agree more. And not only because she wanted nothing to do with her ex. Now there was Quinn to worry about. If Ted made another move on her, convincing Quinn to stay out of it was going to be exponentially tougher.
But they’d spent altogether too much of their evening on unhappy subjects. She forced a brighter tone. “First my mother, then Ted. Let’s forget about both of them for now, huh?” She reached up and smoothed the thick brown hair off his forehead. “Now I want it to be just you and me, here on the sofa, doing whatever comes naturally.”
He studied her face for a moment, his head tipped to the side. And then he kicked off his shoes. She followed suit, sliding off her sandals and pushing them under the coffee table.
“Come here.” He took her by the shoulders, turned her and settled her with her head in his lap.
Chloe stared up at him, feeling better already. The hard things had been said. And now it was just her and Quinn, alone for the evening. He traced the curves of her eyebrows with a slow finger and then caught a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his hand the way he liked to do.
She said, “I hope I didn’t drag you away from anything important at home...”
He shook his head. “Annabelle’s all tucked in bed. Manny and I were just having a beer on the deck.”
“Do you still want to marry me?” The words kind of popped out. She’d hardly known she would say them—until she did.
He gave her his bad-boy half smile. “Oh, yeah. But I’m not pushing. You decide what you want and you do it in your own time.”
“Even after all the grim stuff I told you tonight? I’m not sure I’m such a good bet, Quinn.”
He unwrapped her hair from around his fingers—and then twined it right back again. “You’re not your mother and it’s not your fault that your ex is a psycho dog. You are a good bet, angel. You’re a fine woman with a big heart, the best there is.”
His generous words warmed her, made a glow down inside her that all the trials of the afternoon and evening couldn’t dim.
I think I’m falling in love with you, Quinn.
It sounded so right inside her head. But she wasn’t quite ready to say it out loud yet. Talk of love still had some taint for her. It still held ugly echoes of the past.
She shut her eyes and drifted, cradled, safe, with her head in Quinn’s lap.
Marriage. To Quinn.
Was she ready for that? They’d been together such a short time and she’d messed up so badly before. How could she be certain?
She opened her eyes.
And he was gazing down at her, steady. Sure. Not having to say anything, just being there with her.
When she looked in his eyes, her doubts about herself and her future and her iffy judgment just melted away. When she looked in Quinn’s eyes, she was sure.
And come on. She’d dated Ted for a year before she said yes to him. And then it was another year until their lavish wedding. She’d given herself plenty of time to really know Ted. She’d done everything right.
And still, it all went wrong. Ted was the man her mother wanted for her.
And Quinn?
It was so simple. Quinn was the one she wanted for herself. He was her choice, her second chance to get it right. She trusted him. She knew he would be good to her, that she would be good for him—and for Annabelle and Manny, too.
Together, they could make a full, rich life, the life she’d always wanted. The life she’d given up hope that she would ever find.
Until now. Until Quinn.
He unwound her hair again. And she sat up and took his arm and wrapped it across her shoulders. He gathered her closer. She drew her legs up onto the sofa and folded them to the side so she was facing him. Looking right into those wonderful eyes, she said, “Well, I’ve decided, then. And my decision is...” She stretched up enough to nip his scruffy jaw with her teeth. “Yes.”
For once, he actually looked taken completely off guard. “What did you say?”
“I said yes, Quinn. I will marry you. I want it to be a small, simple wedding, just family and close friends. And I want it to be soon.”
“Chloe.” He took her face between those big hands. “Seriously? You’re sure?” He looked so vulnerable right then, as if he couldn’t quite believe she really meant it.
She did mean it. “Yes, I am very sure.”
“Damn,” he whispered prayerfully.<
br />
He kissed her, a kiss that curled her bare toes and created that incomparable heavy, hot yearning down in the core of her. And then he scooped her up in those big arms of his and carried her to her bedroom.
Late into the night, he showed her exactly how happy her decision had made him.
Dawn was breaking when he left her. She stood out on her front porch in a robe and slippers, watching him walk across the street to his temporary home, knowing her hair needed combing and her eyes were low and lazy. She was fully aware that she had the look of a woman thoroughly and repeatedly satisfied—and she didn’t care in the least who saw her.
She’d made her decision. She was marrying Quinn and finally getting the life she’d always dreamed of.
Chapter Eight
At the showroom a few hours later, Chloe called Tai and asked her to come in early.
At ten, Quinn picked her up. They drove to Denver, where they had lunch and he bought her a beautiful engagement ring and a platinum wedding ring to match. She bought him a ring, too, a thick platinum band that she couldn’t wait to slip on his finger when the big day came. She was back at her showroom by four.
That evening, just as she was letting herself in the front door, the house phone rang. She saw it was her parents’ number and let it go to the machine.
A few minutes later, she checked to see what her mother had said. But it turned out it was her dad. He’d left a two-sentence message: “Chloe, this is your dad. Please call me.”
She did, right then.
He asked her if she was all right and Chloe told him that she would be fine.
Doug Winchester said, “Your mother’s just brokenhearted over what happened last night.”
Chloe refused to let him play the guilt card on her. “We don’t see eye-to-eye, Mom and me. And I don’t think that either of us will be changing our positions anytime soon.”
“She loves you. You know that. I love you.”
“Thanks, Daddy. I love you, too. But sometimes love really can’t make everything right. Not with Mom, anyway. With Mom, it’s her way or nothing. And I’m through doing things her way. In fact, Quinn’s asked me to marry him and I’ve said yes.”
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