Such a cat thing to do.
Chapter Twenty-Six
That night I waited nervously, not sure how Quinn would take the events of the day. We hadn’t heard anything else about Kyle. That would be another issue.
My grandmother finally got tired of my pacing and sent me out to the porch so she could “clean the kitchen in peace.” Lowe had told me early on that that was Bethel’s code for wanting to eat chocolate ice cream and not share it with anyone.
I went to the porch as she asked, and there I sat and continued my waiting. The fairies and pixies had apparently given up their epic battle of survival for the night and mostly retreated to their respective plants. Even the cats were feeling lazy. There was just one angry fairy who kept darting around the pixies and challenging for duels, but for the most part he was ignored. The night was beautiful and the sky was a brilliant cream and purple mix. I knew the colors would change quickly as the sun set. I enjoyed watching the sky.
Given that my waiting perch was now outside, I saw Quinn coming from afar. He had showered and changed since I’d seen him at the hospital a few hours ago. Now he was wearing jeans and a white button-down shirt tucked in. His hair was tousled but in that guy sort of way that meant it still looked good.
Because he appeared to be looking at the road, lost in thought, I had a few moments to observe him as he walked. He was carrying a small gift in his hand, and that gave me a thrill. When he looked up, the thrill sharpened. My face went hot, and it took every ounce of self-control I could muster to keep my hands gripping the chair instead of reaching up to feel my burning cheeks. I didn’t want to acknowledge how embarrassed I was. Quinn had caught me staring.
His face split into a smile. Apparently he wasn’t that angry with me. His limp was less pronounced, and I had seen enough of him by this time to know that meant he was relaxed. I was relieved about how pleased he appeared. I would hate to think that our Friday night dinner date was stressing him out.
“Evening,” I said when he got close enough to hear me.
“Hello there. Were you kicked out of the house?” he asked.
“Bethel thought I could use some fresh air,” I said.
“Couldn’t we all,” he said. “Are you ready for dinner?”
My stomach growled in response, but he ignored it and handed me the small package. “You can leave it inside and open it later. I hate having gifts opened in front of me. It’s always so embarrassing.”
I turned the gift over in my hands and then looked up at him. “I’m sure it’s lovely. Thank you. I’ll be right back.”
There was just one problem with taking the gift inside: Tiger and Spunk and several other cats could get out if I opened the front door. And indeed they did. They made a mad dash for freedom, and by the time I returned to Quinn he was surrounded by small furry bodies and reaching down to pet Tiger on the head.
“Shall we?” he asked, straightening up.
“Yes, let’s get going,” I nodded. “You had time to go home from the hospital?”
He gave me a sharp look and said, “Actually, I went for a swim. I usually go twice a day. It’s the only way I feel at all normal.”
We strolled down Misdirect Lane with the cats following us to the edge of the road, where they stopped and watched us go on alone. There was no way I was going to turn around and wave to them. It was already embarrassing enough to have ten little chaperones. At least our neighbors hadn’t come out to watch us as well.
A funny thing happened as I walked through the trailer park with the sheriff. Everybody who had been outside enjoying the evening disappeared. They took one look at Quinn Merchant and subtly tried to go inside or melt into tree bark. None of them wanted to be around when the sheriff was there.
“I see how popular you are around here,” I said in amusement.
“That happens a lot. I don’t know why they think I’m looking for a crime right now. Maybe I should come back and see what they’re hiding,” he said.
“Who has the time to make so many arrests?” I joked.
He threw his head back and laughed. “That’s true. There’s a murder investigation at the moment that I’m kind of focused on. Still, I’m not really kidding. I’m with you at the moment and I’m focused on that. We men like to focus on one thing at a time. I’m not looking for crimes. Somebody would have to come out and dump a bunch of stolen owl feathers at my feet for me to arrest them. Even then I would do it reluctantly,” he said.
“I can see that you’ve thought about this dilemma,” I said.
For the first time this evening he looked a little embarrassed himself. “Anyway, I assume you want an update on the Kyle situation.”
“Will you give me one?” I asked him in surprise.
“I’ve made some decisions about that. We can discuss them later, but yes, I’ll give you an update. Kyle is still unconscious and his family is still with him. We don’t know anything just yet. Of course there are tests for spells, but the results haven’t come back. We probably won’t know anything until tomorrow,” he said.
“Is Joy with him?” I asked. She was really the only other sheriff I trusted to take care of Kyle. After what had happened to Henry, I couldn’t imagine they were taking any risks.
“She is. She plans on staying there all night. As do several other sheriffs. The hospital itself is on high alert. They have their own spells that they can use. No one was expecting the Vixen attack last time, but now we are. I think Kyle will be quite safe,” he said.
“That’s good,” I said.
Instead of heading for the trolley stop, Quinn kept walking down the dusty lane. “The place where we’re going to eat dinner isn’t far,” he explained.
I was perfectly happy to walk. The night was still beautiful and the sky hadn’t finished going through its rainbow of perfection. Now there was a deep blue and yellow hue overhead.
We kept walking down the lane in a direction where I had never gone before. But Quinn was right. We were not far away from dinner. Down what appeared to be a dirt road there turned out to be an inn.
“The Twinkleford Inn on Misdirect River” was the name printed on the wooden sign.
I heard the rushing sound of water and glanced around.
“There’s a river here,” said Quinn. “As a half mermaid, I tend to like being close to water. The innkeepers are very nice. Gargoyles come to life by a witch’s spell cast long ago. Don’t let the clomping fool you; they’re very graceful. The inn also has a back deck that overlooks the river. Probably the most beautiful spot in town.”
I followed him into the inn, which had an old world feel. A fancy chandelier glittered over our heads as we walked along the thick red carpet. A wooden desk to my left greeted guests. I nearly gasped when I saw the gargoyle. Indeed, Quinn had not been lying.
“Good evening,” said the gargoyle, who was wearing pants and a vest with a long coat. “Your table is ready.”
With slow, practiced movements he led us through several rooms until we found ourselves on the back deck, where ten or so tables were set above the rushing water. The sound was soothing, and we had a perfect view of the river and the sunset. Surrounded by trees, this place was more peaceful than anywhere else I’d been in Twinkleford. The other tables, each lit by a candle, were empty. The gargoyle led us to what looked like the best table there.
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.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 40